Background Various neurocognitive models explore perceptual distortions and hallucinations in schizophrenia and the general population. A variant of predictive coding account suggests that strong priors, like cognitive expectancy, may influence perception. This study examines if stronger cognitive expectancies result in more auditory false percepts in clinical and healthy control groups, investigates group differences, and explores the association between false percepts and hallucinations. Study Design Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia with current auditory hallucinations (n = 51) and without hallucinations (n = 66) and healthy controls (n = 51) underwent the False Perception Task under various expectancy conditions. All groups were examined for the presence and severity of hallucinations or hallucinatory-like experiences. Study Results We observed a main effect of condition across all groups, ie, the stronger the cognitive expectancy, the greater the ratio of auditory false percepts. However, there was no group effect for the ratio of auditory false percepts. Despite modest pairwise correlations in the hallucinating group, the ratio of auditory false percepts was not predicted by levels of hallucinations and hallucinatory-like experiences in a linear mixed model. Conclusions The current study demonstrates that strong priors in the form of cognitive expectancies affect perception and play a role in perceptual disturbances. There is also a tentative possibility that overreliance on strong priors may be associated with hallucinations in currently hallucinating subjects. Possible, avoidable confounding factors are discussed in detail.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症患者认知预期与幻听和幻觉样体验的关联


背景 各种神经认知模型探讨了精神分裂症和普通人群的知觉扭曲和幻觉。预测编码解释的一种变体表明，强先验（如认知预期）可能会影响感知。本研究检查了更强的认知期望是否会导致临床和健康对照组出现更多的听觉错误感知，调查了组差异，并探讨了错误感知与幻觉之间的关联。研究设计 被诊断患有精神分裂症且当前出现幻听 （n = 51） 且无幻觉 （n = 66） 的患者和健康对照 （n = 51） 在各种预期条件下接受了错误感知任务。检查所有组是否存在幻觉或类似幻觉的经历和严重程度。研究结果我们观察到所有组的条件的主要影响，即认知预期越强，听觉错误感知的比率就越大。然而，听觉错误感知的比例没有组效应。尽管幻觉组中存在适度的成对相关性，但在线性混合模型中，幻觉和幻觉样体验的水平并不能预测听觉错误感知的比率。结论 目前的研究表明，认知期望形式的强先验会影响感知并在知觉障碍中发挥作用。还有一种初步的可能性是，过度依赖强大的先验可能与当前幻觉对象的幻觉有关。详细讨论了可能的、可避免的混杂因素。