Auditory false perception in schizophrenia: Development and validation of auditory signal detection task

Auditory hallucinations constitute an important symptom component in 70-80% of schizophrenia patients. These hallucinations are proposed to occur due to an imbalance between perceptual expectation and external input, resulting in attachment of meaning to abstract noises; signal detection theory has been proposed to explain these phenomena. In this study, we describe the development of an auditory signal detection task using a carefully chosen set of English words that could be tested successfully in schizophrenia patients coming from varying linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds. Schizophrenia patients with significant auditory hallucinations (N = 15) and healthy controls (N = 15) performed the auditory signal detection task wherein they were instructed to differentiate between a 5-s burst of plain white noise and voiced-noise. The analysis showed that false alarms (p = 0.02), discriminability index (p = 0.001) and decision bias (p = 0.004) were significantly different between the two groups. There was a significant negative correlation between false alarm rate and decision bias. These findings extend further support for impaired perceptual expectation system in schizophrenia patients.