The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Geneva and the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, involved a strange setup involving a ticking robot, “pink noise” and recordings of the participants’ own voices and voices. voices of strangers.

Auditory verbal hallucinations, commonly referred to as “voices,” have long puzzled researchers and clinicians. Although these experiences are most often associated with schizophrenia, they can also occur in people who have not been diagnosed with mental health problems. The underlying causes of these hallucinations remain a mystery to the psychiatric and neurological communities.

To understand the complexity of this phenomenon, Pavo Orepik, a doctoral student at the University of Geneva, and his colleagues began studying 48 healthy French-speaking subjects who were unaware of the purpose of the study. The main purpose of the experiment was to induce hallucinatory sounds in these participants.

How was the experiment done?

First, the researchers recorded the participants’ own voices saying nine monosyllabic words with negative connotations. They also recorded audio of unidentified people saying the same words. Blindfolded participants were placed between two parts of the robotic apparatus, one in front of them and the other behind them. Participants were told to push the robot in front of them, and the robot pushed them back. These shocks occurred simultaneously and with a slight delay, creating a unique sensory experience.

The experiment began by testing participants’ hearing thresholds by playing audio recordings in the “pink noise” intervals, which are thought to be more relaxing than white noise due to its lower frequency. This process was then repeated, with the strangers’ voices buried in intervals of pink noise.

Results of the experiment

The essence of the experiment was to reproduce the same pink noise at different time intervals, sometimes simultaneously with the shocks, sometimes after the shocks, without audio recording. When participants heard voices in pink noise, they had to press a button and describe what they heard.

In addition to auditory false alarms, researchers observed that people prone to hallucinations were more likely to hear voices. This finding supports the theory that hallucinations and delusions exist across a wide spectrum, even in the general population.

Although the results of the experiment are intriguing, the practical implications and overall significance of the study remain unclear. It highlights the mysterious nature of the human brain and its ability to perceive and even imagine incomprehensible regularities.

The results of the research may contribute to a better understanding of auditory hallucinations and pave the way for further research into this complex aspect of human cognition. However, the broader clinical and practical significance of these results still awaits further investigation.