PsyArticles.com Development Emotion Groups Health Intellect Perception Relations Sleep Stress S-Misuse Values

Hearing Messages

January 2008 - Research from Yale School of Medicine published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2007 has found that hearing messages embedded in meaningless noise could be an early sign of schizophrenia.

The study included 43 people diagnosed with "prodromal symptoms"- meaning they exhibited early warning signs of psychosis such as social withdrawal, mild perceptual alterations, or misinterpretation of social cues. Participants were randomly assigned to take the anti-psychotic medication olanzapine or a placebo. Symptoms and neuropsychological function then were assessed for up to two years.

Participants initially were tested using a "babble task" in which they listened with headphones to overlapping recordings of six speakers reading neutral texts, making the words effectively incomprehensible. They then were asked to repeat any words or phrases heard. Only four were consistently reproduced: "increase", "children", "A-OK", and "republican".

The study found that 80 per cent of participants who "heard" phrases of four or more words went on to develop a schizophrenia-related illness when not taking olanzapine compared to only 6 per cent if the phrases were less than three words in length.

Lead author, Ralph Hoffman, associate professor of psychiatry said:

"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."

The researchers call for further studies to verify these findings but suggest they could provide an inexpensive way of identifying individuals with early warning signs of schizophrenia who would most likely benefit from preventive drug therapy.

More Psychology Articles

Fundamentals of Psychology

Fundamentals of Psychology

by Michael Eysenck
  Aimed at those new to the subject, Fundamentals of Psychology is a clear and reader-friendly textbook that will help students explore and understand the essentials of psychology.
  More information and prices from:
Amazon.com - US dollars
Amazon.ca - Canadian dollars
Amazon.co.uk - British pounds
Amazon.de - Euros
Amazon.fr - Euros

Psychology

Psychology

by Richard Gross
  All the major domains of Psychology are covered in detail across 50 manageable chapters that will help you get to grips with anything from the nervous system to memory, from attachment to personality, and everything in-between.
  More information and prices from:
Amazon.com - US dollars
Amazon.ca - Canadian dollars
Amazon.co.uk - British pounds
Amazon.de - Euros
Amazon.fr - Euros

Penguin Dictionary of Psychology

Penguin Dictionary of Psychology

by Arthur S. Reber, Rhianon Allen, Emily Reber
  Indispensable guide to all areas of psychology and psychiatry.
  More information and prices from:
Amazon.com - US dollars
Amazon.ca - Canadian dollars
Amazon.co.uk - British pounds
Amazon.de - Euros
Amazon.fr - Euros


PsyArticles.com makes minimal use of cookies, including some placed to facilitate features such as Google Search. By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to the use of cookies.
Learn more here

Contact
Privacy Policy
British Isles
Travel
HRM Guide
Copyright © 2024 Alan Price and PsyArticles.com contributors. All rights reserved.