Impaired speaking-induced suppression in schizophrenia predicts auditory verbal hallucinations.

Abstract

A successful efference copy self-prediction suppresses auditory signals in the primary auditory cortex (A1) is necessary for speakers to successfully compare auditory feedback during speech production with auditory feedback during passive listening, this is called speaker-induced suppression (SIS). The top-rank positive symptom in schizophrenic (SZ) patients, auditory verbal hallucination, for instance, is hypothesized to relate to failure to distinguish the internal voice and external sounds, and this deficit is thought to be associated with impaired self-prediction in comparing external and self-generated contents. In this magnetoencephalographic imaging (MEGI) study, we compared SIS M100 in the primary auditory cortex (A1) between the healthy controls (HC; N = 30) and SZ patients (N = 22). The SZ patients displayed reduced SIS and M100 in the A1, and this impairment is negatively correlated with auditory hallucinations. These outcomes suggest that the SZ patients' hallucinatory symptoms are caused by misattribution between the external and self-generated stimuli. We proposed that the weakened self-agency and neural oscillations may lead to this misattribution.