Functioning of the phonological loop in auditory hallucinations

Abstract

Two experiments designed to assess the functioning of the phonological store and loop were carried out with schizophrenic patients experiencing auditory hallucinations, schizophrenic patients not experiencing hallucinations and normal subjects. In the first experiment, phonological encoding was assessed. Although both groups of psychiatric patients performed more poorly overall than the normal subjects, there were no significant differences between the performances of the hallucinating and nonhallucinating patients. In the second experiment, the unattended speech effect (a phenomenon thought to reflect the functioning of the phonological store in normal subjects) was assessed in hallucinating schizophrenic patients, non-hallucinating schizophrenic patients and normal controls. The psychiatric patients performed more poorly overall than the normal subjects, but there was no evidence of abnormal functioning of the phonological store or loop in either patient group. Overall, the findings indicate that phonological store and loop abnormalities are not implicated in the experience of auditory hallucinations.