FUNCTIONING OF THE PHONOLOGICAL LOOP IN AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS

Two experiments designed to assess the functioning of the phonological store and loop were carried out with schizophrenic patients experienc ing auditory hallucinations; schizophrenic patients not experiencing h allucinations and normal subjects. In the first experiment, phonologic al encoding was assessed. Although both groups of psychiatric patients performed more poorly overall than the normal subjects, there were no significant differences between the performances of the hallucinating and non-hallucinating patients. In the second experiment, the unatten ded speech effect (a phenomenon thought to reflect the functioning of the phonological store in normal subjects) was assessed in hallucinati ng schizophrenic patients, non-hallucinating schizophrenic patients an d normal controls. The psychiatric patients performed more poorly over all than the normal subjects, but there was no evidence of abnormal fu nctioning of the phonological store or loop in either patient group. O verall, the findings indicate that phonological store and loop abnorma lities are not implicated in the experience of auditory hallucinations . Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd