Pavlovian conditioning–induced hallucinations result from overweighting of perceptual priors

• Autores: A.R. Powers, C. Mathys, P.R. Corlett
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 357, Nº 6351, 2017, págs. 596-600
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Some people hear voices that others do not, but only some of those people seek treatment. Using a Pavlovian learning task, we induced conditioned hallucinations in four groups of people who differed orthogonally in their voice-hearing and treatment-seeking statuses. People who hear voices were significantly more susceptible to the effect. Using functional neuroimaging and computational modeling of perception, we identified processes that differentiated voice-hearers from non–voice-hearers and treatment-seekers from non–treatment-seekers and characterized a brain circuit that mediated the conditioned hallucinations. These data demonstrate the profound and sometimes pathological impact of top-down cognitive processes on perception and may represent an objective means to discern people with a need for treatment from those without.