Auditory Cortex Responsiveness During Talking and Listening: Early Illness Schizophrenia and Patients at Clinical High-Risk for Psychosis

The corollary discharge mechanism is theorized to dampen sensations resulting from our own actions and distinguish them from environmental events. Deficits in this mechanism in schizophrenia may contribute to misperceptions of self-generated sensations as originating from external stimuli. We previously found attenuated speech-related suppression of auditory cortex in chronic patients, consistent with such deficits. Whether this abnormality precedes psychosis onset, emerges early in the illness, and/or progressively worsens with illness chronicity, is unknown.