Cited by 906Hallucinations in medical conditionsSchizophrenia research and treatmentMental Health and Psychiatry

A functional neuroanatomy of hallucinations in schizophrenia

Silbersweig, D. A., Stern, E., Frith, C., Cahill, C., Holmes, A., Grootoonk, Sylke, Seaward, J., McKenna, P. +4 more·1995·Nature

Abstract

Hallucinations, perceptions in the absence of external stimuli, are prominent among the core symptoms of schizophrenia. The neural correlates of these brief, involuntary experiences are not well understood, and have not been imaged selectively. We have used new positron emission tomography (PET) methods to study the brain state associated with the occurrence of hallucinations in six schizophrenic patients. Here we present a group study of five patients with classic auditory verbal hallucinations despite medication, demonstrating activations in subcortical nuclei (thalamic, striatal), limbic structures (especially hippocampus), and paralimbic regions (parahippocampal and cingulate gyri, as well as orbitofrontal cortex). We also present a case study of a unique, drug-naive patient with visual as well as auditory verbal hallucinations, demonstrating activations in visual and auditory/linguistic association cortices as part of a distributed cortical-subcortical network. Activity in deep brain structures, identified with group analysis, may generate or modulate hallucinations, and the particular neocortical regions entrained in individual patients may affect their specific perceptual content. The interaction of these distributed neural systems provides a biological basis for the bizarre reports of schizophrenic patients.

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Crossref · 10.1038/378176a0

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Authors
Silbersweig, D. A., Stern, E., Frith, C., Cahill, C., Holmes, A., Grootoonk, S., Seaward, J., McKenna, P., Chua, S. E., Schnorr, L., Jones, T., & Frackowiak, R. S. J.
Affiliations
  • Hammersmith Hospital (GB)
  • Fulbourn Hospital (GB)
Venue
Nature
Published
1995-11
Volume
378
Issue
6553
Pages
176-179
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W1969273085
Cited by
906
References
30
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 30
FWCI
19.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hallucinations in medical conditions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
Keywords
hallucinations, schizophrenia, auditory verbal hallucinations, visual hallucinations, neural correlates, thalamus, striatum, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, cortical-subcortical networks
MeSH terms
Adult, Brain, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Hallucinations, Humans, Male, Schizophrenia, Tomography, Emission-Computed

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