A number of interesting hits come up when you Google the
phrase “hearing voices.” This phenomenon, also known as experiencing auditory
hallucinations, is an occurrence that has traditionally provoked a distinctly
negative stigma in American culture. Hearing voices is considered by many
doctors one of the most common and consistent signs of psychosis, and in
America, a majority of individuals affected by voice hearing report negative
emotions, such as fear or stress, to be linked to the experience. However, the
phenomenon of auditory hallucination is far from homogenous, and in fact,
recent research is uncovering more and more variability and complexity in the
neurological and cultural components of hearing voices.
The neurology of voice hearing is still being unearthed, but
several regions of the brain have been found to contribute to the event. For
example, in those experiencing auditory hallucinations, language-processing
areas in the left perisylvian region, including Broca’s area and Wernicke’s
area, have been found to have a reduced density of gray matter. Research also
suggests that this structural abnormality may be caused by low glutamate
concentrations in the brain. A lack of glutamate, a major excitatory neurotransmitter,
could lead to defective communication between neurons. Additionally,
schizophrenics have been found to have abnormally high activity in the right
middle temporal gyrus. The right and left middle temporal gyri respond to
external speech, but in most people there is more activity in the left than the
right. A hyperactive right region suggests that the brain may be attempting to
compensate for a malfunction in left-brain language processing.
In addition to biological factors, social and cultural
perceptions of hearing voices play a role in affected individuals’ experiences of
the phenomenon. Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann provides an insightful
examination into the effects of culture upon the event of auditory
hallucinations in a talk she delivered for the Foundation for Psychocultural
Research. Luhrmann compares the experiences of individuals who hear voices in
three different locations: California, Ghana and India. She notes that the
Americans interviewed were more likely than the others to describe their voices
as symptoms of a disease, to report that they did not know their voices, and to
report violent or hurtful voices. Other subjects, while still reporting
majority negative experiences, described different relationships with their
voices. Indian subjects were most likely to identify their voices as
familiar—namely family members—while Ghanaians were most likely to report
hearing the voice of God. Luhrmann traces these disparities partly to the way
that auditory hallucinations are viewed in various cultures. Since American
medicine interprets voice hearing as the sign of a “violated mind,” she
suggests that the violence of the American subjects’ voices may be intensified
by the impact of this viewpoint upon affected individuals.
As research has uncovered more of the complexity of auditory
hallucinations, it has become clear that there are many types of voice hearing,
accompanied by a wide array of emotions, tactile sensations, and other aspects.
Researchers such as Luhrmann suggest that a more holistic approach to treating
and understanding those impacted by voice hearing, which seeks to avoid giving
affected individuals the viewpoint that their mind has been maliciously
infiltrated, may help us create more effective treatments. Undoubtedly, a good
deal is still to be understood about the experience of auditory hallucinations,
which exist at a striking intersection of neurological, psychological and
cultural elements.
-Kate Oksas
Sources
To view the video
of Tanya Luhrmann’s talk, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L44uHPNiUaM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_receptor
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