Neurocognitive Models of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia: A Review

Recent studies at the interface between psychiatry and neuroscience demonstrate a trend towards the investigation of single significant clinical characteristics of mental disorders in contrast to the analysis of a mental disorder as a homogeneous nosological unit. Thus, a large body of studies is focused on auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in schizophrenia, which are one of the core positive symptoms of the disorder and an important diagnostic criterion. Nevertheless, the neuropsychological and neurophysiological mechanisms of AVH in patients with schizophrenia remain debatable. In this paper, we will review the main neurocognitive models of AVH in schizophrenia, including models of intrusive cognitions and poor inhibitory control, a model of attentional shift to inner auditory stimuli and an inability to reallocate its resources, a model of expectation maximization, a model of working memory deficit, a model of poor source-monitoring, models of AVH within cultural-historical approach, and a model of impaired verbal self-monitoring in inner speech. The results of several neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies relevant to the models are also highlighted. We conclude that schizophrenia patients with AVH demonstrate deficits in executive functions and language, or rather a poor cross-functional interaction between them.