A Perceptual Inference Mechanism for Hallucinations Linked to Striatal Dopamine.

ABSTRACT: Hallucinations, a cardinal feature of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, are known to depend on excessive striatal dopamine. However, an underlying cognitive mechanism linking dopamine dysregulation and the experience of hallucinatory percepts remains elusive. Bayesian models explain perception as an optimal combination of prior expectations and new sensory evidence, where perceptual distortions such as illusions and hallucinations may occur if prior expectations are afforded excessive weight. Such excessive weight of prior expectations, in turn, could stem from a gain-control process controlled by neuromodulators such as dopamine. To test for such a dopamine-dependent gain-control mechanism of hallucinations, we studied unmedicated patients with schizophrenia with varying degrees

SUBMITTER: Cassidy CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5820222 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature