Sensory Attenuation Elicited by Inner Speech and its Role for Auditory Hallucinations in Schizophrenia

Sensory attenuation describes the reduced salience and neurophysiological response to self-initiated compared to externally generated sensations. Abnormal sensory suppression has been linked to corollary discharge dysfunctions in overt speech production, which has been associated with auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in schizophrenia. However, the question of whether corollary discharge contains information about the ‘auditory’ properties of inner speech (such as gender) remains understudied.