Hearing Voices Not Necessarily A Blessing

Reported in this month's British Journal of Psychiatry a study by researchers at Yale University has found that hearing "messages" embedded in other vocalizations may be an indicator of potential schizophrenia. Their research reported findings based on the study of 43 participants who had been diagnosed with "prodromal symptoms" (exhibition of such early warning signs of psychosis as social withdrawal, mild perceptual alterations, or misinterpretation of social cues).

According to Jacqueline Weaver of Yale University, study participants were randomly prescribed either anti-psychotic medication, olanzapine, or placebos and then underwent a series of tests and evaluations for symptoms and neuropsychological functions for approximately two years.

During a series of "babbling" experiments, wearing headphones, participants listened to six overlapping speakers (three males and three females) -- which made their words unintelligible. Participants were to repeat any words or phrases they could make out. The following four words: "increase," "children," "A-O.K.," and "Republican" were consistently identified.

The vast majority, 80 percent, of participants "hearing" phrases four or more words long, developed a schizophrenic-like illness when taking the placebo, according to lead author Ralph Hoffman, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry. Only six percent studied fell into a schizophrenic-like illness upon "hearing" phrases less than three words long.

"A tendency to extract message-like meaning from meaningless sensory information can, over time, produce a 'matrix of unreality' that triggers the initial psychotic phase of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders," said Hoffman.

In summary, Hoffman indicated more research is needed due to the small number of subjects studied, but showed optimism regarding the potential diagnostic benefit that could be derived. He further indicated the belief that patients finding embedded messages in the printed word -- referencing similar behavior suggested by Nobel prizewinner John Nash, "whose schizophrenic illness emerged subsequent to his detecting 'encrypted messages' embedded in letter patterns appearing in the New York Times"(Nasar, 1998) -- could also be an early signal of boding schizophrenia and worthy of additional study.

Article: Hearing 'messages' embedded in noise could be early sign of schizophrenia