Researchers awarded £4.1m to investigate auditory hallucinations

Auditory hallucinations, the sensory perception of hearing noises without an external stimulus, are reportedly experienced by 70-80% of people with schizophrenia and related disorders. People with lived experience of psychosis identified these as a top research priority because of their impact on daily function and the distress they cause.

Professor Rick Adams (UCL Division of Psychiatry) will co-lead a project to identify the mechanisms underlying auditory hallucinations, along with Professors Oliver Howes and Beatriz Rico, King’s College London, Dr Stephen Kaar, University of Manchester and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, and Emily Wheeler from MQ Mental Health Research.

This £4.1 million Wellcome funded project will explore whether deficits in specific populations of cortical neurons cause alterations in cortical oscillatory activity that lead to auditory hallucinations. This will be tested using a multidisciplinary approach combining electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in people experiencing auditory hallucinations, as well as electrophysiological recordings in mouse models, and computational modelling.

Professor Rick Adams, Professor of Computational Psychiatry said:

“The computational modelling part of the project has two aims: first, to use models of EEG data to work out whether young people experiencing auditory hallucinations have disinhibition in the part of the brain important for speech perception, and second, to see if a brain-like neural network model that learns to perceive speech can tell us about how disinhibition in the network might actually lead to hallucinations of voices.”

Professor Beatriz Rico, Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, King’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience said:

“We aim to understand which neurons are responsible for the atypical brain network patterns observed in humans experiencing auditory hallucinations. We can investigate this using our rodent models, where we can precisely switch different types of neurons on and off to mimic these patterns and identify potential cellular targets. Additionally, we will examine critical developmental windows that may be more susceptible to early interventions. I am thrilled about this new collaborative adventure. We have a unique opportunity to integrate experimental and computational models that are vital for establishing a bridge with people with lived experience of psychosis.”

The project is highly interdisciplinary, involving researchers from different backgrounds, as well as patients and carers, who will be involved as co-researchers, and experts from around the world.

Related:

• Original King's news: Researchers receive £4.1million to research new modelling and treatment approaches for auditory hallucinations in people with psychosis
• Professor Rick Adams' academic profile
• UCL Division of Psychiatry

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