Report on the 2nd International Consortium on Hallucination Research: Evolving Directions and Top-10 "Hot Spots" in Hallucination Research

Abstract

This article presents a report on the 2nd meeting of the International Consortium on Hallucination Research, held on September 12th and 13th 2013 at Durham University, UK. Twelve working groups involving specialists in each area presented their findings and sought to summarize the available knowledge, inconsistencies in the field, and ways to progress. The 12 working groups reported on the following domains of investigation: cortical organisation of hallucinations, nonclinical hallucinations, interdisciplinary approaches to phenomenology, culture and hallucinations, subtypes of auditory verbal hallucinations, a Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scale multisite study, visual hallucinations in the psychosis spectrum, hallucinations in children and adolescents, Research Domain Criteria behavioral constructs and hallucinations, new methods of assessment, psychological therapies, and the Hearing Voices Movement approach to understanding and working with voices. This report presents a summary of this meeting and outlines 10 hot spots for hallucination research, which include the in-depth examination of (1) the social determinants of hallucinations, (2) translation of basic neuroscience into targeted therapies, (3) different modalities of hallucination, (4) domain convergence in cross-diagnostic studies, (5) improved methods for assessing hallucinations in nonclinical samples, (6) using humanities and social science methodologies to recontextualize hallucinatory experiences, (7) developmental approaches to better understand hallucinations, (8) changing the memory or meaning of past trauma to help recovery, (9) hallucinations in the context of sleep and sleep disorders, and (10) subtypes of hallucinations in a therapeutic context.