International Project: Clinical, cognitive and neurobiological markers for auditory hallucinations: Multicenter study Bergen-Plovdiv

Schizophrenia is one of the psychiatric disorders with the highest social burden, and auditory hallucinations are one of its most common manifestations. Despite advances in neuroscience, the underlying pathological process is not well understood.

Data from recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in this field reveal the potential of resting state studies to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of hallucinations.

This project focuses on the study of patients with verbal auditory hallucinations with fMRI at rest, during which they record the beginning and the end of separate hallucinatory episodes.

Subsequent processing of neuroimaging data aims to identify specific mechanisms in switching on/off this experience. The discovery of the underlying mechanisms could also help to discover new therapeutic approaches.