Identifying target regions for Neurofeedback treatment of auditory hallucinations using EEG of experimentally induced and pathological hallucinations

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Models of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in schizophrenia view them as inner speech misattributed to an external source. Several fMRI studies implicate reduced activity of supplementary motor area (SMA) during AVH. However, fMRI has limited temporal resolution, while brain-symptom correlations in fMRI case-control studies have potential confounds. This study combines the improved temporal resolution of EEG with a symptom modelling approach and patient studies to delineate the relationship of SMA to AVH. Study (i): suggestions for AVH in hypnotically responsive individuals with EEG measurement before, during, and after AVH. We test the hypothesis that EEG indices are selectively reduced in frontotemporal leads during AVH. We interpret this as indicating lower activity of SMA and functional coupling with language generation regions as the proximate brain mechanism of AVH. Study (ii): we extend this design to patients with chronic AVH, testing the same hypothesis.