Abstract
Aims: This study aimed to establish and compare the effects of brief sensory deprivation on individuals differing in trait hallucination proneness.Method: Eighteen participants selected for high hallucination proneness were compared against 18 participants rating low on this trait. The presence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), and participants’ cognitive appraisals of these, was evaluated in three different settings: at baseline, in a “secluded office” environment, and in light-and-sound sensory deprivation.Results: Psychotic-like experiences were experienced significantly more often in sensory deprivation for both groups. In particular, both experienced slight increases in perceptual distortions and anhedonia in seclusion, and these increased further during sensory deprivation. Highly hallucination prone individuals showed a significantly greater increase in perceptual distortions in sensory deprivation than did non-prone individuals suggesting a state-trait interaction. Their appraisals of these anomalous experiences were compared to both clinical and non-clinical individuals experiencing psychotic symptoms in everyday life.Conclusion: Short-term sensory deprivation is a potentially useful paradigm to model psychotic experiences, as it is a non-pharmacological tool for temporarily inducing psychotic-like states and is entirely safe at short duration. Experiences occur more frequently, though not exclusively, in those at putative risk of a psychotic disorder. The appraisals of anomalous experiences arising are largely consistent with previous observations of non-clinical individuals though importantly lacked the general positivity of the latter.
Highlights
Since around 2000 high risk research has increasingly investigated how psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) may be part of the risk trajectory for psychosis (1, 2)
Short-term sensory deprivation is a potentially useful paradigm to model psychotic experiences, as it is a non-pharmacological tool for temporarily inducing psychoticlike states and is entirely safe at short duration
The appraisals of anomalous experiences arising are largely consistent with previous observations of non-clinical individuals though importantly lacked the general positivity of the latter
Summary
Since around 2000 high risk research has increasingly investigated how psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) may be part of the risk trajectory for psychosis (1, 2). There is a long history of experimental paradigms attempting to induce such experiences in healthy individuals, much of it taking place back in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these studies employed sensory deprivation of various kinds as the method for inducing anomalous experiences [e.g., Ref. Prolonged periods of deprivation were found to produce a range of psychotic-like phenomena in many, if not all participants. Researchers lost interest in the field of inducing anomalous experiences, many dismissing the phenomena as more akin to fantasy or acts of imagination and not a true parallel of the hallucinations and other positive symptoms seen in psychosis
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
