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+--- Thread: Research Study finds major cause of hearing voices in schizophrenia (/thread-19678.html)
Study finds major cause of hearing voices in schizophrenia - C C - Jan 26, 2026
https://knowridge.com/2026/01/study-finds-major-cause-of-hearing-voices-in-schizophrenia/
EXCERPTS: A new study from UNSW Sydney provides some of the clearest evidence yet that hearing voices in schizophrenia may come from the brain confusing its own thoughts as external sounds. This means that people who hear voices might actually be hearing their own inner speech but their brains think it is coming from someone else.
The research, published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, could also help scientists find biological markers for schizophrenia—clear signs in the body or brain that doctors can use to identify the condition. At the moment, there are no blood tests or brain scans that can diagnose schizophrenia.
Professor Thomas Whitford, a psychologist at UNSW, has been studying how inner speech works in both healthy people and people with schizophrenia. He explains that inner speech is that quiet voice in your head that talks to you throughout the day, helping you plan, reflect, or think things through. Most people experience this voice all the time without thinking much about it.
Normally, when someone talks out loud, or even just silently in their head, the brain predicts the sound of their own voice. This prediction causes a drop in activity in the part of the brain that processes sound. But in people who hear voices, this prediction seems to go wrong. Instead of calming down, the brain acts as though the sound is coming from outside.
This idea—that people with schizophrenia may be hearing their own inner voice as if it were someone else’s—has been around for about 50 years. But because inner speech is invisible and private, it has been very hard to prove.
[...] This research is important because it gives strong support to the theory that schizophrenia might involve problems in how the brain predicts and understands its own thoughts. This misunderstanding may cause a person to hear their inner voice as if it belongs to someone else... (MORE - missing details)
RE: Study finds major cause of hearing voices in schizophrenia - Magical Realist - Jan 26, 2026
Doesn't really explain how the voices consistently make intelligent and relevant comments to one's thoughts and actions and can even be talked to. At a certain early stage there is a confusion factor where external white noise is being interpreted as a speaking, though usually unclear and robotic sounding. But the voices as well as our mind fine tunes their clarity over time to the point of being totally "their own" with their own favorite phrases and humorous observations.
RE: Study finds major cause of hearing voices in schizophrenia - Syne - Jan 26, 2026
"Robotic sounding" is often how cochlear implant recipients first describe hearing voices, before the brain has time to adjust to and interpret the input. That would suggest that "robotic sounding" voices are a problem with the brain not recognizing the input (as if it's new), which seems to be what this study is saying.
I don't know about others, but my inner voice almost exclusively makes intelligent and relevant comments on my thoughts and actions. I can even roleplay conversations... how they could have/should have gone, etc.. Not a stretch to roleplaying with an inner voice your brain doesn't recognize as internal. It's very much like dreams, where your brain is constructing the entire experience but you are unaware that you are responsible for the environment and other characters in the dream.
RE: Study finds major cause of hearing voices in schizophrenia - stryder - Jan 26, 2026
Such papers are dangerous currently as their "experiment" while using EEG doesn't identify if they shielded the subjects from outside interference through a mixture of Faraday cage and anechoic chambering.)
This means they can be mislead with false positives and continue a false narrative. Until such times experiments are coordinated with the consideration that the environment is as much to the conditions being investigate as the condition itself, these papers will remain flawed.