Brain's self-voice misfire explains hearing voices in schizophrenia

New UNSW research provides the strongest evidence to date that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia arise when the brain mispredicts its own inner speech, treating thoughts as external voices. EEG tests across three groups (recent AVH, other schizophrenia patients, and healthy controls) showed healthy individuals reduce brain activity for matched imagined/actual sounds, while those currently hearing voices show the opposite pattern, suggesting a disruption in the brain's prediction mechanism and offering a potential biomarker for psychosis and earlier detection.