Robots make people hear voices

Hallucinations are complex experiences that have major negative impact in many patients who experience them. Most of research on hallucinations to date has been conducted on patients, which makes it difficult to separate the effects of hallucinations in the general population (non-disease related) from those occurring because of a medical condition. In a study published in Psychological Medicine, Dr Pavo Orepic and colleagues from the Blanke Lab developed and tested a robotic procedure able to simulate the “hearing of a voice”, one the most common and very distressing psychotic symptom (auditory verbal hallucinations), in healthy participants under controlled laboratory conditions. The research provides a novel engineering method and fresh neuroscience data on how these experiences may align with the prevailing theories concerning the origin of auditory verbal hallucinations in the brain. Their goal is to improve our understanding of hearing voices to engineer better ways to help people who suffer from auditory verbal hallucinations.

Their work gained global recognition, prominently featured in The New York Times and the Swiss National Science foundation reported in various languages, engaging diverse audiences worldwide.