Specific Brain Regions Show Increased Activity During Hallucinations

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Eye Health / Blindness;  MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 05 Sep 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Ever seen or heard something that wasn't there? For most of us such experiences - termed hallucinations - are a normal, fleeting, brain glitch; yet for a few they are persistent, distressing and associated with a range of psychiatric, neurological and eye conditions.

In the September Issue of Cortex Dominic H. ffytche at the Institute of Psychiatry in London reviews what we do know and moves the field forward, by introducing a new experimental approach to studying hallucinations as they occur.

Surprisingly little is known about brain changes that occur during hallucinations because of their brief, unpredictable nature. One cannot anticipate when a hallucination will occur, so the chances of capturing one during a brain scanning experiment are small. It has long been recognized that flashes of light at particular frequencies produce hallucinations of intricate patterns and vivid colours. Using a combination of brain imaging methods in normal subjects, the author harnesses the technique to examine localized changes in brain activity and changes in brain connections during hallucinations.

"We observed increases in activity in visual brain regions", says ffytche, "Increases in visual connection strength and an alteration in relationship between visual relay and receiving stations, together suggesting that hallucinations were caused by a transient form of 'blindness'".

The work highlights the need to consider the hallucinating brain from a wider perspective than previously thought. Changes in both localized brain activity and in connections between brain areas occur during hallucinations, raising further questions as to how these changes interact with pre-existing abnormalities in patients susceptible to hallucinations.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The article is "The Hodology of Hallucinations" by Dominic H. ffytche, and it appears in Cortex, Volume 44, Issue 8 (September 2008), pp 637-648, published by Elsevier in Italy.

This article is published in a Special Issue of Cortex entirely dedicated to the novel MRI methods to study human brain connections. In the same issue an article by Thiebaut de Schotten et al shows that disorders of spatial awareness are frequently associated with lesions of the fibres connecting the frontal and parietal lobes. Similarly for the left hemisphere Catani and Mesulam revisit the anatomy of the language pathways and show that beyond the classical language network connecting Wernicke's and Broca's area there are additional circuits involved in complex language functions. This hodological approach begins to reveal important details on the architectural backbone of human cognition and could explain the anatomical basis of symptoms commonly observed in a wide range of disorders including schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

About Cortex

Cortex is an international journal devoted to the study of cognition and of the relationship between the nervous system and mental processes, particularly as these are reflected in the behaviour of patients with acquired brain lesions, normal volunteers, children with typical and atypical development, and in the activation of brain regions and systems as recorded by functional neuroimaging techniques. It was founded in 1964 by Ennio De Renzi. The Editor in-chief of Cortex is Sergio Della Sala, Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh. Cortex is available online.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/), bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Source: Valeria Brancolini
Elsevier