Cotcha Yankinov
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Messages
- 2,952
Neuroscience of the "voice in the head/inner dialogue" and audio hallucinations
Some people are acutely aware of this "inner dialogue/monologue" that is occurring almost constantly during the day, and it seems that it might be pathological in some mental disorders such as anxiety, and then possibly separate (but then again possibly similar) in biological origins you have audio hallucinations. I was wondering if we knew much about the biological origins of the voice in the head, such as perhaps if there is a particular neurotransmitter or brain region that is especially responsible. Some people report profound peace and silence of the voice in the head with NMDA antagonists (I can attest personally that they help with silencing both the inner dialogue and musical hallucinations), so is NMDA a suspect for being largely responsible for the voice in the head?
There are also audio hallucinations which seem to be related to excess dopamine/arousal. Is there any research on why excess dopamine leads to audio hallucinations? Can you extract from the mechanisms behind working memory and assume that excess dopamine/arousal decreases the signal to noise ratio resulting in excess noise or an over active brain region?
Some people are acutely aware of this "inner dialogue/monologue" that is occurring almost constantly during the day, and it seems that it might be pathological in some mental disorders such as anxiety, and then possibly separate (but then again possibly similar) in biological origins you have audio hallucinations. I was wondering if we knew much about the biological origins of the voice in the head, such as perhaps if there is a particular neurotransmitter or brain region that is especially responsible. Some people report profound peace and silence of the voice in the head with NMDA antagonists (I can attest personally that they help with silencing both the inner dialogue and musical hallucinations), so is NMDA a suspect for being largely responsible for the voice in the head?
There are also audio hallucinations which seem to be related to excess dopamine/arousal. Is there any research on why excess dopamine leads to audio hallucinations? Can you extract from the mechanisms behind working memory and assume that excess dopamine/arousal decreases the signal to noise ratio resulting in excess noise or an over active brain region?