Imagine if there was a voice in your head that regularly threatened to harm you or your loved ones, or that even ordered you to do so yourself. Awful as that would be, such auditory hallucinations are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia, with approximately one in four sufferers continuing to experience them even once taking anti-psychotic drugs. Fortunately, scientists have recently helped some schizophrenics gain control of their condition, by turning those voices into interactive avatars.
In a study conducted at University College London, 16 schizophrenic test subjects worked with a therapist to select a computer-generated face and voice that they felt most closely matched the evil “entity” that was speaking to them. The therapist was then able to converse with the patient in real time via that avatar, its animated lip movements matching its speech.
In up to seven 30-minute sessions, each subject interacted with their entity’s avatar, and were encouraged to oppose its threats and orders. Not only did this allow the subjects to get comfortable with the idea of standing up to the “actual” entities themselves, but because they had taken part in creating the avatars, it helped them realize that the entities actually originated within their own mind.
Additionally, each subject received an MP3 recording of their sessions, which they could listen to whenever they started hearing voices again.
Once they had completed all of their sessions, almost all of the participants reported a reduction in both the frequency and the severity of their hallucinations. Three of the subjects, who had been experiencing hallucinations for 16, 13 and 3.5 years, stopped hearing voices completely.
The research team just received a £1.3 million (US$1.98 million) award from UK-based global charitable organization the Wellcome Trust, to conduct a larger trial of the therapy. That trial will involve 142 test subjects and is scheduled to begin in July at King's College London. The first results are expected for the end of 2015.
The avatar therapy was developed by Julian Leff, Emeritus Professor of Mental Health Sciences at University College London.
Source: Wellcome Trust via New Scientist
Every one has "voices" in their head - only some don't recognize it as themselves . Every one talks to themselves . It's just that some say it out loud more than others - where it can be irritating for people around them.
The author should also include that there are devices which produce the effect of " voices in the head" , such as micro wave technology acting as the carrier embedded with "info" - there are plenty of patents online , actual kits and even soda machines that silently "talk" to passers-by.
While some people do have some real problems , it seems disingenuous to not include the gizmo's which can mimic their complaints and torment .
It's easier to combat something that you can physically see and control than some ephemeral voice in your head. With your pat dismissal of the symptoms and the work done to help people with schizophrenia, it's painfully obvious that you don't have any kind of neurological disorders. I sincerely hope that you might be able to empathize with the people who have them, rather than simply crapping all over actual advances developed to threat these disorders.
This training the patient to stand up to the voice and confront it may be helping to strengthen the inhibition of these elements by the filter during waking consciousness. At least, that is what I would speculate. It would be interesting to see what effect this training had on neuroanatomy in areas which are noticeably different in schizophrenia patients.