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" SCHIZOPHRENIA " - the price we pay for language?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:59 am
by stefan
Posted in lingforum.com

Post subject: Speech perception and some symptoms of schizophrenia.

http://www.lingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=512

" SCHIZOPHRENIA " (an integration disorder) - the price we pay for language?

I find it very challenging to live with something which has a negative impact on my life without understanding and this is an ongoing attempt to understand an illness most people know very little about. Approximately one percent of the world's population (almost 70 million people!) are at some point in their lives just like me right now (several voices are commenting on what I write and think) forced to somehow cope with what they experience due to what can best be described as an integration disorder which depend on both environmental and genetic factors. My attempts to understand started off several years ago as some kind of metacognitive approach to understand some of what I with this illness experience which now also (to me at least...) seems to enable a better understanding of speech perception. (What can we learn from experiences like these? Some of what I write in my attempts to understand can maybe at the best make people think because I often find it very hard to understand what scientists like Crow, Grossberg, Ford, Frith, Hunter and Hoffman write and have a tendency or need to fill in these gaps when the only comprehensible source of information, reliable or not, seems to be my experience. However the gap between how I understand some of what I with this illness experience and what some of these scientists write has been narrowed down and I do think that at least some of what I write now is worth reading. I focus a lot on how an already stigmatized experience can be connected to some of what characterize an even more stigmatized illness, but most people who hear auditory hallucinations do not meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia! I do appreciate that the administrator of a forum like this allows me to post what I in time hope to understand better and need to apologize for all the changes I make in my attempts to improve some of what I write. This is no doubt a very interesting subject to explore, but I fully understand how hard it must be to respond to a post like this and interpret the very few responses I get as kindness from people who like me want to understand this better. All the sources I use in my attempts to understand this better are included together with what I quote in the end of this letter. )

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Information about symptoms and DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia

Characteristic symptoms (DMS-VI): 1.) delusions 2.) hallucinations 3.) disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence) 4.) grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour 5.) negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition

Diagnostic criteria (DMS-VI): Two (or more) symptoms, “…each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated)… …Only one symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other…” Social/occupational dysfunction and the possibility to exclude something else are also taken in consideration!

Source: Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, Table 4-6. DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/m ... l#table4_6

Diagnosis (DMS-VI): 1.) Paranoid Type 2.) Catatonic Type 3.) Disorganized Type 4.) Undifferentiated Type 5.) Residual Type

Source: Counselling Resource

http://counsellingresource.com/distress ... renia.html

The following quotations on schizophrenia are from Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, Table 4-7. Postitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/m ... l#table4_7

Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Delusions are firmly held erroneous beliefs due to distortions or exaggerations of reasoning and/or misinterpretations of perceptions or experiences. Delusions of being followed or watched are common, as are beliefs that comments, radio or TV programs, etc., are directing special messages directly to him/her.

Hallucinations are distortions or exaggerations of perception in any of the senses, although auditory hallucinations (“hearing voices” within, distinct from one’s own thoughts) are the most common, followed by visual hallucinations.

Disorganized speech/thinking, also described as “thought disorder” or “loosening of associations,” is a key aspect of schizophrenia. Disorganized thinking is usually assessed primarily based on the person’s speech. Therefore, tangential, loosely associated, or incoherent speech severe enough to substantially impair effective communication is used as an indicator of thought disorder by the DSM-IV.

Grossly disorganized behavior includes difficulty in goal-directed behavior (leading to difficulties in activities in daily living), unpredictable agitation or silliness, social disinhibition, or behaviors that are bizarre to onlookers. Their purposelessness distinguishes them from unusual behavior prompted by delusional beliefs.

Catatonic behaviors are characterized by a marked decrease in reaction to the immediate surrounding environment, sometimes taking the form of motionless and apparent unawareness, rigid or bizarre postures, or aimless excess motor activity.

Other symptoms sometimes present in schizophrenia but not often enough to be definitional alone include affect inappropriate to the situation or stimuli, unusual motor behavior (pacing, rocking), depersonalization, derealization, and somatic preoccupations.

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Affective flattening is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact, and body language.

Alogia, or poverty of speech, is the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts, and often manifested as laconic, empty replies to questions.

Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior; it is often mistaken for apparent disinterest.

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Professor Tim Crow ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Crow ) proposes that the human capacity for language can cause an integration disorder like this as far as I can understand because a deviation in the rate of nonverbal and verbal development cause the human capacity for language to be less lateralized. I do struggle a lot in my attempts to understand some of what Tim Crow and other scientists write, but this illness could very well be the price we pay for language.

The alien voices I often hear in response to non-verbal environmental sounds such as traffic noise, background chatter or the pitch and timbre of a single distorted maybe distant voice are no doubt just like when I hear and with awareness control my inner voice verbal thoughts heard out loud. To sometimes lose the ability to control what you are doing when you are forced to divide your attention between two similar tasks is a well known experience many people share and to be forced to divide your attention between what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear a certain voice (listening) and the inner voice you intend to produce with an internal gesture (covert speech) may due to a similarity result in that you lose the ability to control covert speech. (The internal gestures you intend to produce when you expect to access a verbal message in response to what you are able to hear more objectively must as far as I can understand like the gestures you intend to produce during overt speech determine what you expect to hear (Quote 1) and what you are able to attend with a top-down sensory expectation like this (Quote 1 and 9) will, when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce, automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce.) Verbal thoughts like these are heard in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation (what you expect to hear when you expect to hear the inner voice you intend to produce) and will in response to certain sounds include non-verbal acoustic features which characterize what you are able to hear more objectively. (The attention you devote to a competing task (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce) can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce will automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce) more or less suppress the ability to control covert speech and to more or less, depending on how well a corresponding top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals, lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. This ought to result in a tendency to produce a rather equivalent inner voice in response to what you are able to hear more objectively and to be able to hear the sensory consequence of covert speech in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation can no doubt generate the perception of a voice "that retain certain acoustic features that where present in the original signal". Quote 16) Some people are able to hear verbal illusions like these (referred to as functional auditory hallucinations) in response to the pitch and timbre of a distorted maybe distant voice impossible to hear more objectively and this must no doubt be the most insidious symptom a person can experience. I succeeded to simulate the circumstances needed to induce functional auditory hallucinations like these in one of my attempts to understand this better. This was done with the help of a soundfile with a lot of white noise used to mask distant voices talking in the background. An objective perception was hereby prevented, but I could still hear them talk and in real life you only need to hear a couple of words to start and fuel false beliefs. It is sometimes hard to tell, but I do think that the ability to hear whatever you expect to hear in response to non-verbal features which characterize a certain voice early on had a negative impact on my life (Quote 17) and wonder if the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies (classical conditioning) when you with a short delay are able to restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message can have such a profound effect that some people eventually develop a mental illness.

Quote 16: "In schizophrenia, functional hallucinations are defined as those that occur when a patient simultaneously receives a real stimulus in the perceptual field concerned (e.g., hallucinated voices heard simultaneously with and specific to the real sound of running water)... ...Another hallucinated voice occurred simultaneously with actual speech uttered by television announcers. The semantic content was the same as that of the "engine voice," but the "television voice" sounded human, exactly like the real voice of the television announcer who was speaking at the same time. For example, the "television voice" was described as sounding like an adult woman with a northern British accent and "serious" emotional prosody... In this Patient, we observed a direct relationship between the timbre, prosody, and pitch of real environmental sounds and simultaneously perceived auditory hallucinations. Evidence from functional neuroimaging supports a general hypothesis that auditory hallucinations can arise because of abnormal activation in the auditory cortex. This case suggests a further hypothesis: normal activation in the auditory system, which corresponds to neural encoding of natural-sound object and location characteristics, may be misinterpreted, leading to the false perception of functional auditory hallucinations that retain certain acoustic features that where present in the original signal..." Source: Letter to the Editor, Characteristics of Functional Auditory Hallucinations by Michael D. Hunter, M.R.C.Psych., and Peter W.R. Woodruff, Ph.D., M.R.C.P., M.R.c.Psych. Sheffield, U.K. Am J Psychiatry 161:923, May 2004

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/con ... /161/5/923

Quote 17: "...A tendency to extract spurious, message-like meaning from meaningless noise was assessed as a risk factor leading to shizophrenia-spectrum disorders by assessing word length of speech illusions elicited by multispeaker babble in 43 people with prodromal symptoms..." Source: Extracting spurious messages from noise and risk of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in a prodromal population" written in British journal of psychiatry (2007), 191, 355-356. by Ralph E. Hoffman and colleagues. (Their findings can as far as I can understand be used in support of the opinion that functional auditory hallucinations early on in the development of an integration disorder like schizophrenia often are a part of what you experience.)

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/191/4/355

Excessive attentional focus on all features matching a top-down sensory expectation can substantially increase the subjective loudness of what you are able to select (peripheral features not otherwise brought to awareness) when you are trying to hear a certain voice and this will as far as I can understand determine the subjective loudness of the voice you are able to hear in integration with all features matching a top-down sensory expectation. To first excessively pay attention to and then with a short delay interpret all features matching a top-down sensory expectation may result in abnormal (internal) activation of primary auditory cortex (Quote 11), but what I write in my attempts to understand functional auditory hallucinations as the origin of an integration disorder like this will like our ability to restore and better distinguish a verbal message naturally be more concerned with normal (external) activation of primary auditory cortex. (The voice you hear in integration with all features matching a top-down sensory expectation will in response to certain sounds include acoustic features which characterize what you are able to hear more objectively and an ability to sometimes be able to reveal a verbal illusion by locating the source of some environmental sounds can like when you are able to block all features matching a top-down sensory expectation make it very easy to understand that you are able to interpret external stimuli. However to block what I hear with my fingers can only give a temporary relief from the voices I hear and I am also like expected able to hear my own thoughts in the tinnitus sounds I hear (become more aware of) during silence. Most people will probably find it very hard to understand that you are able to hear a voice when you interpret what normally is unattended and bellow awareness, but it is well known that a short or long term memory of a tone can enable the perception of the same tone at a lower volume than otherwise would have been possible (Hemisfärernas musik, s.53, Jan Fagius) and Treisman´s attenuation model which can be used to understand the cocktail party effect claim that "paying attention to a message means increasing its subjective loudness". The ability to take nonverbal features matching what you expect to hear out of their peripheral existence will make it possible to reveal a verbal illusion and to be able to reveal a verbal illusion in response to un-patterned noise above a certain threshold, but totally lack the ability to reveal a verbal illusion in response to un-patterned noise of a much lower volume may result in a tendency to expect to hear a verbal message in response un-patterned noise bellow a certain threshold. To expect to hear a verbal message in response to un-patterned noise bellow a certain threshold can motivate an operant behaviour (the internal gestures we produce during covert speech) which without an act of will can generate the alien voices people are able to hear in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation. Ford and colleagues suggest that patients with auditory hallucinations may have excessive attentional focus toward internally generated events and because of this overinterpret the kind of internal noise (spontaneous sensory activity) people normally ignore. Quote 11-12)

Quote 11: “…Recent advances in the neurosciences provide clues to why patients report an auditory experience in the absence of any perceptual input. Spontaneous activity in the early sensory cortices may in fact form the basis for the original signal. Early neuronal computation systems are known to interpret this activity and engage in decision-making processes to determine whether a percept has been detected. A brain system that is abnormally tuned in to internal acoustic experiences may therefore report an auditory perception in the absence of any external sound. Ford and colleagues recently suggested that patients with auditory hallucinations may have excessive attentional focus toward internally generated events—the brains of persons who have auditory hallucinations may therefore be overinterpreting spontaneous sensory activity that is largely ignored in healthy brains…” (She writes about auditory hallucinations in Psychiatric Illness, but it is very important to remember that some people who hear voices do well and can use their voice hearing experience to enrich their lives.) Source: Auditory Hallucinations in Psychiatric Illness from the march 2010 issue of Psychiatric Times by Flavie Waters

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/a ... ic-illness

Quote 12: "…Although "voices" are the anticipated sensory experience, it appears that even primary auditory cortex is "turned on" and "tuned in" to process internal acoustic information at the cost of processing external sounds…" Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin 2009 Jan;35(1):58-66, Tuning in to the voices: A Multisite fMRI Study of Auditory by Judith M. Ford and colleagues

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjour ... l.pdf+html

Classical conditioning is according to Stephen Grossberg "...far more subtle and relevant to complex human cognitive-emotional behavior than one might first realize..." (Quote 26) and I´m trying to understand if the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies (classical conditioning) when you with a short delay are able to restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message can have such a profound effect that some people eventually develop a mental illness. Classical conditioning (also referred to as pavlovian or respondent conditioning) can be the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies like these and may trigger the need to access a verbal message (what you learn to expect) in response to non-verbal stimuli while operant conditioning is the result of response - stimulus (the sensory consequence of an internal gesture can be heard in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation) contingencies and what you learn to do to satisfy the need to access a verbal message. In other words to frequently restore a verbal message in response to more ambiguous sounds may result in a tendency to expect to hear a verbal message in response to non-verbal environmental sounds and to expect to access a verbal message in response to non-verbal environmental sounds can motivate a verbal response which makes it possible to interpret what other people mostly ignore. (Read quote 21 and 31)

Quote 21: "...Respondent conditioning is the result of stimulus-stimulus contingencies, while operant conditioning is the result of response-stimulus contingencies that affect operant behaviour. There are, however certain stimulus-stimulus contingencies that affect operant behaviour. Theoretically speaking, stimulus-stimulus effects on operant conditioning may be regarded as resulting from respondent conditioning interacting with operant conditioning..." (p. 103) "...Before concluding this discussion of the distinction between respondent and operant conditioning, it is important to note that pure instances of either are rare. Most learned behaviour consists of both..." (p. 40) "…Some stimuli, such as food and water, are reinforcers due to phylogeny (i.e., the evolutionary history of the species). These stimuli are called primary reinforcers. Other stimuli can become reinforcers due to events that occur in the history of an individual. Typically, these reinforcers have been paired with existing reinforcers. For example, if a tone regularly precedes food, the tone will become a reinforcer – that is, it can be used to operantly condition an arbitrary response such as a lever press. A conditioned reinforcer is a stimulus that has become a reinforcer by being paired with a reinforcer. Conditioned reinforcement expands the range of stimuli that can become reinforcers. The evolutionary significance of conditioned reinforcement is that responding to produce a stimulus that has occurred in close temporal association with a primary reinforcer is likely to bring the animal closer to the primary reinforcer. Natural selection would favour this because primary reinforcers usually benefit the animal or its reproductivity." (p. 36) Source: The science of learning by Joseph Pear (available in google books)

Quote 31: "Pavlovian conditioning is largely responsible for our motivation to respond in any situation. Operant conditioning, on the other hand, is what we learn to do to satisfy these motivational states." Source: Organisational Behaviour Modification by Jonathan Gabbai on June 14, 2001

http://gabbai.com/management/organisati ... dification

Re: " SCHIZOPHRENIA " - the price we pay for language?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:04 am
by stefan
The sensory consequence of covert speech can be heard in integration with some features which characterize what you are able to hear more objectively and the internal gestures you intend to produce when you expect to access a verbal message in response to what you are able to hear more objectively must as far as I can understand like the gestures you intend to produce during overt speech determine what you expect to hear (I assume that you are able to select the top-down motor expectation you use when several simultaneously are available and each determine their own top-down sensory expectation. Quote 1 and 33 ). What you are able to attend with a top-down sensory expectation like this will, when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce, automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce. To be forced to simultaneously perform two tasks in response to a reinforcer or a neutral stimulus will naturally demand more attention than to only perform one of them and two in some way similar tasks can be assumed to compete with each other more than two different tasks because the available attention capacity is set (limited) as if you were to perform only one task. (Quote 2 ) In other words the attention you devote to a competing task (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce ) can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity more or less suppress the ability to control the other task (covert speech) and to more or less lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. (Quote 7 and 8 ) The threshold for action selection when you more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response ought to depend on attentional demands of the competing task and your motivation to in a certain context produce a verbal response when you experience the need to access a verbal message. Attentional demands of the competing task will besides the need to access a verbal message rely on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals. (Quote 9 ) To more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response when attentional demands of a competing task suppress the ability to control covert speech will serve the purpose of not letting an act of will interfere with the ability to select what you need to produce in response to a verbal message (internal gestures with a more rather than a less equivalent sensory consequence) and to no longer consciously, with regards to a certain goal, be able to choose how you respond ought to result in that you find it much harder to disregard the context you are exposed to and experience. (To consciously, with regards to a certain goal, be able to choose how you respond requires the ability to inhibit a verbal response as long as it takes to generate an act of will and to be able to inhibit a verbal response as long as it takes to generate an act of will would only interfere with the ability to select the rather equivalent sensory consequence we often need to produce in response to a verbal message. The McGurk (Quote 25) and the phonemic restoration effect can in response to visual stimuli make it possible to understand that multiple sources of information sometimes are used to generate the event we call perception (Quote 45) and this would no doubt be virtually impossible if you were able to generate an act of will in response to what you are able to hear more objectively. A goal directed behaviour is the outcome of competition between response tendencies, but a lowering of the threshold for action selection when attentional demands of all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation suppress the ability to inhibit a specific response will prevent the ability to generate an act of will in response to what you are able to hear more objectively (Quote 23). Competition between what you intend to produce (covert speech) and what you are able to select with a corresponding top-down sensory expectation (listening) will consequently result in that bottom-up sensory signals affect the outcome of competition between response tendencies.) In other words to more or less, depending on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals, lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response may very well result in that you are able to produce a context dependent internal gesture with a rather equivalent sensory consequence in response to what you are able to hear more objectively ("bottom-up sensory signals"). To be able to hear the sensory consequence of a context dependent internal gesture like this in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation will not only make it possible to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. Some people are able to interpret what only seems to be a verbal message and to more or less, depending on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals, lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response may result in the perception of a voice "that retain certain acoustic features that where present in the original signal". (Quote 16 ) In other words the voices people are able to hear can in response to running water be a hallucinated voice "heard simultaneously with and specific to the real sound of running water" and in response to a slightly distorted verbal message what you are able to distinguish and restore. (A better verbal and non-verbal match between a corresponding top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals can increase attentional demands of the competing task more than when you use any other to a lesser extent matching top-down sensory expectation... ) To not be able to devote enough attention to generate the kind of self-awareness you need to control covert speech (when attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation suppress the ability to inhibit a verbal response) could be as essential to our ability to restore and better distinguish a verbal message as it can be devastating to people with an integration disorder referred to as schizophrenia. (Quote 18 )

To select the top-down motor expectation you use in response to a verbal message is to associate a verbal stimulus (sometimes both auditory and visual stimuli) with a top-down motor expectation, be motivated to produce and lack the ability to inhibit a specific response. The ability to associate a verbal stimulus with a top-down motor expectation do not help you to select the top-down motor expectation you need to use when you restore a verbal message or interpret un-patterned noise in response to what only seems to be a verbal message, but to in a certain context expect to access a verbal message may result in that you are motivated to produce and lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. Phonemic restoration rely on our ability to interpret irrelevant stimuli when we expect to access a verbal message (Quote 22) and to integrate and give meaning to irrelevant stimuli without the ability to inhibit a response is a characterizing feature which may reflect the origin of an integration disorder referred to as "schizophrenia".(Quote 8 )

Quote 1: "...This article suggests how brain mechanisms of learning, attention, and volition may give rise to hallucinations during schizophrenia and other mental disorders... ...Top-down motor expectations are also proposed to exist (Bullock and Grossberg, 1988;Bullock et al., 1998). For example, they can code the desired final, or target, position of a limb, such as an arm, during a reaching movement (see Figure 3). Such expectations can also be readout as priming events that do not, in themselves, cause a movement (Georgopoulos et al., 1986)... ...Top-down sensory expectations help to unitize the contents of bottom-up sensory signals, whereas top-down motor expectations help to unitize the motor gestures that are used to read-out articulatory movements. Under normal conditions, sensory expectations of self-generated sounds are subliminally primed when motor expectations are used to produce speech. With a hyperactive volitional system, these subliminal primes can become suprathreshold..." Source: How hallucinations may arise from brain mechanisms of learning, attention and volition (1999) by Stephen Grossberg

http://cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg/Gro99.hall.pdf

Quote 2: “…Allport – modules of attention Allport (1980, 1993) has proposed that attention consists of a number of modules. Each module deals with a different ability or skill, so that one module may deal with auditory information, another with visual information, etc. Allport suggests that each module has its own resources and each has a limited capacity. (This is in contrast to capacity theories that regard attention as being controlled by a single limited capacity.) Allport´s theory predicts that similarity will be a major factor in the performance of dual task experiments (see Figure 3.2). When tasks are similar they compete for the resources of one module and interfere with each other. This makes it difficult to perform them simultaneously. However, dissimilar tasks use different modules and do not require the same resources. These tasks do not interfere with each other and may be performed simultaneously (they are processed in parallel)…" Source: Attention and pattern recognition by Nick Lund is available in google books

Quote 7: “…Over the short time scale of a few milliseconds, the brain engaged its inhibitory circuitry to make the neurons fire in synchrony. This simultaneous, correlated firing creates a loud, but simple, signal. The effect was much like a crowd at a sporting event chanting, "Let's go team!..." Source: “Can you hear me now?” Researchers detail how neurons decide how to transmit information." March 25th, 2011. (My attempt to use the article Timescale-dependent shaping of correlation by olfactory bulb lateral inhibition by Sonya Giridhar and colleagues: Their findings indicate that our brain need to engage its inhibitory circuitry to make the neurons fire in synchrony and the anticipatory adjustments we according to a forward model are able to make during an act of will ought to rely on that we are able to inhibit a verbal response as long as we need to evaluate the sensory consequence we intend to produce. In other words inhibitory control may cause the “synchronous neural activity” Ford and colleagues were able to detect as preceding an act of will. The kind of “synchronous neural activity” they were able to detect could be a reflection of the forward model preparing the CNS for the sensory consequences of its own actions and will if so reflect what can be referred to as a corollary discharge mechanism. (Quote 6) Irwin Feinberg was the first scientist to propose that these discharges "are themselves conscious" and "correspond to nothing less than the experience of will or intention". (Quote 4) The attention you devote to a competing task can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce) more or less suppress the ability to control the other task (covert speech) and to more or less lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response! In other words people lose the ability to control what they are doing because attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation suppress the ability to inhibit a verbal response. )

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-neu ... nsmit.html

Quote 8: “…The lack of voluntary control over the experience is a key feature of auditory hallucinations, which might explain why self-generated inner speech is classified as external in origin. According to this proposal, hallucinations are experienced when verbal thoughts are unintended and unwanted. Because deficits in cognitive processes, such as inhibitory control, are thought to render people more susceptible to intrusive and recurrent unwanted thoughts, studies have linked auditory hallucinations with deficits in cognitive inhibition…” Source: Auditory Hallucinations in Psychiatric Illness from the march 2010 issue of Psychiatric Times by Flavie Waters

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/cme/dis ... 68/1534546

Quote 9: "...Attention is controlled by sensory and cognitive expectations which are matched against sensory inputs. Attention is also controlled by emotional and motivational expectations, which are regulated by learned feedback between cognitive and reward and punishment centers..." (p.3) Source: The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg

http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossber ... sy2000.pdf

Quote 18: "...mental states include not only affects and emotions, but also goals and intentions. A person who was unaware of their goals could, on the one hand, be a slave to every environmental influence or, on the other hand, be prone to perseverative or stereotyped behaviour, because they would not have the insight to recognize that certain goals were unobtainable or inappropriate..." (Both Frith and Grossberg must no doubt realize that you need more than one perspective to understand a person and the persistence with which I´m trying to understand some of what I with this illness experience can not be fully captured with a quote like this. The human need to understand and be understood can be equally relevant.) Source: Theory of mind in Schizophrenia. (1994) by CD Frith quoted by Stephen Grossberg in The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000)

http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossber ... sy2000.pdf

Quote 22: "...These failures of perception are studied because they isolate and clarify some fundamental processes that normally lead to accuracy of perception and appropriate interpretation of ambiguous sources..." (They replaced one phoneme of a word with a cough-like sound and noticed that people are able to restore what they in a verbal context expect to hear.) Source: Warren, R.M., & Warren, R.P. (1970). Auditory illusions and confusions. Scientific American, 223, 30-36.

http://step.psy.cmu.edu/articles/WarrenWarren70.pdf

Quote 23: “…Any attempt to elucidate the nature and mechanism of passivity phenomena, i.e., experiences that one's conscious actions or thoughts have not been 'willed' by oneself, requires… …Thus, action selection is the outcome of competition between response tendencies in the context of prefrontal biasing signals that represent drives and strivings for goals. Action selection may be uncoupled from drives and strivings as a result of a lowering of the threshold for action selection--as is suggested to be the case in schizophrenic passivity phenomena…” Conscious Cogn. 2004 Sep;13(3):579-609. A neuroanatomical model of passivity phenomena. Behrendt RP.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15336249

Quote 33: …Incentive motivational learning enables an activated drive representation D to prime, or modulate, the sensory representations S of all cues, including the CSs, that have consistently been correlated with it. Activating D hereby generates a "motivational set" by priming all of the sensory and cognitive representations that have been associated with that drive’s emotion in the past..." Source: The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg

http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossber ... sy2000.pdf

Quote 45: “In the Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception (FLMP) perceivers are conceptualized as forming perceptual judgments by evaluating and integrating multiple ambiguous sources of information, in an optimal manner based on relative goodness of match...” Source: Trends Cogn Sci. 1999 Aug;3( 8 ):310-317.Speechreading: illusion or window into pattern recognition by Dominic W. Massaro

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10431185

To frequently restore a verbal message in response to more ambiguous sounds when you lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response may eventually result in a tendency to expect to hear a verbal message in response to non-verbal environmental sounds other people mostly ignore and this ought to result in a tendency to interpret all features matching a top-down sensory expectation in response to what other people mostly ignore. It´s probably more common to expect to hear a verbal message in response to non-verbal sounds which originates from a distorted maybe distant voice than in response to other environmental sounds. This is also why I assume that voices like these when you are able to hear whatever you expect in response to non-verbal features which characterize a certain voice often are the first you hear although most people are entirely unaware of this. (Quote 17) The need to restore a verbal message in a noisy environment, due to a hearing impairment or when volition and emotion make you listen to indistinct, maybe distant and hard to hear voices may result in a tendency to interpret all features matching a top-down sensory expectation in response to what other people mostly ignore. To be able to hear whatever you expect in response to the context you are exposed to and experience may in response to non-verbal environmental sounds gradually change the context you experience to a more subjective context and can be assumed to more easily lead to false beliefs in response to non-verbal features which characterize a certain voice if you think that auditory hallucinations never include an external source. Common sense should in my opinion always be given a fair chance and M.D Hunter is a scientist who gives a more diversified and clear picture of what an auditory hallucination can be. (Quote 16)

"POSITIVE" SYMPTOMS are as far as I can understand added to what some people experience when they lack the ability to inhibit a response (internal or external and verbal or not) and with a short delay generate the event we call perception in response to what other people mostly ignore. Verbal auditory hallucinations emerge as the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies (classical conditioning) when you with a short delay are able to restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message while "positive" symptoms in response to visual, somatosensory, olfactory, and gustatory stimuli emerge due to a failure to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS (un-patterned noise).

NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS (poverty of speech etc ) can when you expect to hear what you intend to produce be the result of a remaining or at least previously present ability to take all features matching a top-down sensory expectation out of their peripheral existence. I assume that you are able to reveal a verbal illusion when positive feedback quickly draws attention to CS and all features matching a top-down sensory expectation (an internal reinforcer) without generating a match between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals. The ability to take all features matching a top-down sensory expectation out of their peripheral existence ought to result in that you lack the motivation to execute and are able to inhibit what you simultaneously intend to produce. In other words what you intend to produce may take on the value of what you are able to reveal as irrelevant when all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation (what you expect to hear when you expect to hear what you intend to produce with a context dependent internal gesture) are brought to awareness without generating a match between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia will as a consequence emerge when you are able to reveal a mismatch between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals (the "arousal level" is too large when you expect to access information in response to what you are able to reveal as irrelevant) and when attending what you were able to reveal as irrelevant eventually together with whatever you intend to produce automatically take on the value of what you were able to reveal as irrelevant (the "arousal level" will be too small in response to the context you are exposed to and experience). The top-down sensory expectation you use in response to CS can like an internal reinforcer elicit an emotional response (the onset response), but what you are able to reveal as irrelevant (an unexpected event) will trigger the offset response and this may result in negative symptoms like affective flattening, alogia or avolition. Read quote 42 and 26 from the article The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg and draw your own conclusion. "This article discusses one type of arousal: conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational arousal, and how its depression can lead to negative schizophrenic symptoms."

Catatonic behaviours are referred to as positive symptoms, but seem to be consisting of both positive and negative symptoms. "Catatonic behaviors are characterized by a marked decrease in reaction to the immediate surrounding environment, sometimes taking the form of motionless and apparent unawareness, rigid or bizarre postures, or aimless excess motor activity."

Re: " SCHIZOPHRENIA " - the price we pay for language?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:06 am
by stefan
An ongoing attempt to use a CogEM-model to understand how we are able to restore what is or only seems to be a verbal message (Read quote 24 and 34): S ambiguous (un-patterned noise corresponding to CS or a neutral stimulus in response to which you expect to hear a verbal message) ---> D representation (A drive representation ("emotion node") like this ought to correspond to a memory of what you felt when you needed to access a verbal message and can only generate incentive motivational output signals to sensory representations "if it gets a sufficiently large primary or conditioned reinforcer input att the same time that it gets a sufficiently large internal drive input." The need to access a verbal message (information) will naturally be stronger in response to un-patterned noise when you need to restore a verbal message and NS (un-patterned noise) can be associated with a drive representation corresponding to the need to access a verbal message if a verbal top-down sensory expectation (an internal reinforcer) activate a drive representation like this! Un-patterned noise will eventually if you frequently restore a verbal message be associated with a drive representation corresponding to the need to access a verbal message and this may result in that a drive representation like this is activated in response to nonverbal environmental sounds most people ignore... ) ---> S ambiguous (incentive motivational output signals can highlight CS (S ambiguous) and select all features matching a top-down sensory expectation (an internal reinforcer) in response to both CS and a neutral stimulus) ---> M (internal gestures - without an act of will what can be referred to as alien covert speech) ---> S verbal (an internal voice can be heard in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation)

Quote 34: ”…Pairing of a CS with a US has two consequences: (1) The sensory represen-tation of the CS becomes associated with the drive representation of the US (conditioned rein-forcement learning in Grossberg´s terms), and (2) the drive representation of the US becomes associated with the sensory representation of CS (incentive motivation learning in Gross-berg´s terms)… …Incentive motivation associations reflect the association of the US with a CS representation and mediate the enhancement of the sensory representation of the CS…” Source: Animal learning and cognition: A neural network approach, Nestor A. Schmajuk, p. 62 is available in google books

Quote 24: "...Figure 5: The simplest CogEM model: Three types of interacting representations (sensory, drive, and motor) that control three types of learning (conditioned reinforcer, incentive motivational, and motor) may be used to explain many conditioning data. Three types of learning take place among these representations: Conditioned reinforcer learning strengthens the adaptive weights, or long-term memory traces, in a S --> D pathway when a CS activates its sensory representation S just before the drive representation D is activated by an unconditioned stimulus (US), or other previously conditioned reinforcer CSs. The ability of the CS to subsequently activate D via this learned pathway is one of its key properties as a conditioned reinforcer. As these S --> D associations are being formed, D --> S incentive motivational learning also occurs, due to the same pairing of CS and US. Incentive motivational learning enables an activated drive representation D to prime, or modulate, the sensory representations S of all cues, including the CSs, that have consistently been correlated with it. Activating D hereby generates a "motivational set" by priming all of the sensory and cognitive representations that have been associated with that drive’s emotion in the past. These incentive motivational signals are a type of motivationally-biased attention. The S --> M motor, or habit, learning enables the sensorimotor maps, vectors, and gains that are involved in sensory-motor control to be adaptively calibrated, thereby enabling a CS to read-out correctly calibrated movements..." (p.8 ) "...In the circuit of Figure 5, each drive representation D obeys a poyvalent constraint whereby it can generate incentive motivational output signals to sensory representations only if it gets a sufficiently large primary or conditioned reinforcer input att the same time that it gets a sufficiently large internal drive input. The internal drive input designates whether an internal drive, such as hunger, thirst, - etc., is high and in need of satisfaction..." (p.12 ) Source: The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg

http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossber ... sy2000.pdf

"From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia"

Summary: I´m trying to understand if the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies (classical conditioning) when you with a short delay are able to restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message can have such a profound effect that some people eventually develop a mental illness. However my attempts to understand "The imbalanced brain" can maybe at the best be used as some kind of starting point in your own attempts to understand this better. Conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational learning (quote 34) can when you are able to restore what is or subjectively seems to be a verbal message increase the tendency to use a verbal top-down sensory expectation (an internal reinforcer) in response to non-verbal stimuli (CS) and a top-down sensory expectation like this can be used to attend all features matching what you expect to hear when you expect to hear what you intend to produce. The attention you devote to a competing task (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce) can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce will automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce) more or less suppress the ability to control the other task (covert speech) and to more or less lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal (an act of will can no longer be generated) is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. (Quote 7 and 8 ) To restore what is or subjectively seems to be a verbal message is rewarded and this will increase your motivation to use an internal gesture which determines what you expect to hear while the motivational state you are in simultaneously increase attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation. The threshold for action selection when you more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response ought to depend on attentional demands of what you are able to select with a top-down sensory expectation and your motivation to in a certain context produce a verbal response when you experience the need to access a verbal message. Attentional demands of what you are able to select will besides the need to access a verbal message rely on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals. (Quote 9 ) People who hallucinate are able to "restore" what only seems to be a verbal message (interpret un-patterned noise) when they lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response and with a short delay hear the sensory consequence of (alien) covert speech in integration with nonverbal features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia will like a failure to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS emerge when you are able to reveal a mismatch between a verbal top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals (an unexpected event) and when attending what you were able to reveal as irrelevant eventually together with whatever you intend to produce automatically take on the value of what you were able to reveal as irrelevant. "Positive" symptoms are as far as I can understand added to what some people experience when they lack the ability to inhibit a response (internal or external and verbal or not) and with a short delay generate the event we call perception in response to what other people mostly ignore. Verbal auditory hallucinations emerge as the result of stimulus (non-verbal) - stimulus (verbal) contingencies (classical conditioning) when you with a short delay are able to restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message while "positive" symptoms in response to visual, somatosensory, olfactory, and gustatory stimuli emerge due to a failure to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS (un-patterned noise). Conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational learning may like this disrupt the balance between excitatory-inhibitory circuits and by doing this cause both positive and negative symptoms.

Quote 43: “It is now well recognized that there are several distinct arousal systems in the brain, and that they interact with one another… …This article discusses one type of arousal: conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational arousal, and how its depression can lead to negative schizophrenic symptoms. Within the larger Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) of which the CogEM model forms a part (Grossberg, 1999b), there are also several other types of arousal. These include the type of volitional arousal whereby a learned top-down expectation is converted from a modulator, or prime, of bottomup information, into a suprathreshold activation that can be used to control internal fantasy, rehearsal, and planning (Grossberg, 1999a). When this type of arousal becomes imbalanced, the model undergoes a type of hallucination with many properties similar to those observed during schizophrenia. Another type of arousal is activated when bottom-up information mismatches top-down expectations, thereby leading to reset of short-term memory and other reactions that are mediated by a type of orienting arousal. Yet other types of arousal are used to control various action systems. The ART brain models thus predict the need for functionally different types of arousal. It remains to test how well the predicted arousal mechanisms match known brain arousal systems…” (p.25 ) Source: The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg

http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossber ... sy2000.pdf

People with an integration disorder referred to as "schizophrenia" can not filter out irrelevant stimuli and this has been suggested to depend on a failure to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS. (Quote 37 ) A previously conditioned stimulus (CS) can in compound with a neutral stimulus (NS) prevent a neutral stimulus in any of our senses from becoming a conditioned reinforcer whenever CS can predict the occurrence of a primary (US) or conditioned reinforcer (Quote 36), but maybe not when the "arousal level" (conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational arousal) is too large (1) or too small (2).

1.) Verbal auditory hallucinations do not emerge because people lack the ability to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS, but respondent conditioning may result in visual hallucinations if you lack the ability to block a neutral stimulus (maybe weak un-patterned light) in compound with a previously conditioned stimulus (some kind of broad spectrum noise or a non-verbal environmental sound which characterize a certain voice) when you are able to reveal a verbal illusion. (Can CS in compound with a neutral stimulus prevent a neutral stimulus from becoming a conditioned reinforcer when CS suddenly due to the ability to reveal a verbal illusion no longer predict the occurrence of a rewarding event? Maybe not, because the mismatch you get in response to CS when you are able to reveal a verbal illusion ought to result in that you no longer are motivated to focus on CS and all features matching a top-down sensory expectation. (Sensory events that do not predict new rewarding events are not attended (in focus) and the ability to block a neutral stimulus (attentional blocking) in compond with CS will due to a mismatch as far as I can understand be lost.) Whatever you are feeling when you need to access information in response to what you are able to hear objectively correspond to an internal drive and will together with CS (conditioned reinforcer input) activate a drive representation or "emotion node" associated with both auditory and visual stimuli. This will both increase the need to satisfy an internal drive and attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation. To like this motivate an internal response when (and only when) the response you intend to produce can be expected to satisfy an internal drive while attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation lowers the threshold for action selection will generate the event we call perception. Read quote 24 from the article The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia (2000) by Stephen Grossberg and draw your own conclusion. I need to understand this much better. To understand the following quote may help: “…Another type of arousal is activated when bottom-up information mismatches top-down expectations, thereby leading to reset of short-term memory and other reactions that are mediated by a type of orienting arousal…” (p. 25) from the article The Imbalanced Brain: From Normal Behavior To Schizophrenia )

2.) Our ability to focus on what is relevant (like a stimulus which can predict a forthcoming event ) ought to depend on that we are able to experience the need to access information and to like I suggest diminish the need to access information in response to the context you are exposed to and experience would make it much harder to block (attentional blocking) a neutral stimulus in compound with CS. (To diminish the need to access information can be assumed to affect the ability to activate whatever kind of "emotion node" (a memory representing hunger, thirst, - etc) you need to use to be able to focus on what is relevant. "...The combination of learned S -> D conditioned reinforcer learning and D -> S incentive motivational learning form a positive feedback loop S -> D -> S that is activated when S is turned on by its conditioned reinforcer CS. This positive feedback quickly draws attention to CS by amplifying the activation of its sensory representations..." (Quote 40) The ability to block a neutral stimulus (attentional blocking) in compound with CS will be lost when a conditioned reinforcer no longer can use motivational feedback to draw attention to itself. Quote 39 and 40) People with "negative" symptoms will more often fail to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS in a Kamin blocking experiment than those who mostly experience "positive" symptoms (Quote 38 and 44 ) and only lack the ability to block a neutral stimulus in compound with CS when they are able to reveal a mismatch between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals.

To be stressed out and sleep deprived can maybe like the need to restore a verbal message in a noisy environment, due to a hearing impairment or when volition and emotion make you listen to indistinct, maybe distant and hard to hear voices be assumed to trigger an integration disorder like this.

1.) Sensory deprivation and solitude may, like starvation can affect hunger, result in that an internal drive which correspond to the need to access information get stronger. The strong need to access information can motivate an operant behaviour which satisfies your need and will no doubt increase the tendency to restore what seems to be a verbal message.

2.) Sleep deprivation on the other hand can probably trigger or make auditory hallucinations worse because you are unable to devote enough attention to process what you intend to produce. (I have noticed that sleep-deprived individuals who are exposed to a noisy environment tend to use overt articulatory gestures to support their ability to think. Hypnagogic hallucinations are episodes of hearing voices as one is falling asleep and ought to depend on that people are unable to devote enough attention when they during covert speech generate awareness of what they with a short delay will be doing.)

To not be able to devote enough attention to generate awareness of what you will be doing may result in that you, without an act of will, totally lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. (The self-awareness we need to generate an act of will can like this be lost and will not due to competition for limited neuronal resources attenuate features matching a top-down sensory expectation in response to a verbal message.) People are able to interpret what seems to be a verbal message when they lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response and with a short delay hear the sensory consequence of (alien) covert speech in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation.

3.) Indifference is a quality which ought to decrease your vulnerability and being a more sensitive and insecure person is a quality which may increase your vulnerability as it will increase the need to access information.

4.) Belonging to an ethnic minority will increase the risk of developing an integration disorder like this... Can any difference which gives you the sense of not belonging in a social context cause an elevated risk of developing an integration disorder like this?

5.) Urban living will increase the exposure to more ambiguous voices in response to which you are more likely to expect to hear a verbal message and this may eventually result in a tendency to restore what others mostly ignore…

Quote: “…The fact that the incidence of schizophrenia increases consistently with increasing levels of urbanicity in a dose–response fashion suggests not only statistical association, but also causality. Thus, the Swedish findings, in combination with earlier publications, allow us to put forward an increasingly plausible case that the environment has a powerful influence on variation in the incidence of schizophrenia in populations. The identification of the nature of this environmental exposure is likely to further significantly our knowledge of the causes and mechanisms that facilitate symptom formation in psychosis...” Source: The British Journal of Psychiatry (2004) 184: 287-288 Does the urban environment cause psychosis? by Jim Van Os
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/4/287#REF7

6.) A hearing impairment is not only known to increase the tendency to experience less severe auditory hallucinations, but also as expected a risk factor, one out of many, which are known to more or less increase the likelihood of developing an integration disorder like this.

Quote: "...hearing impairments are important risk factors for schizophrenia (Malmberg et al., 1995)..." Source: The Causes of Schizophrenic Voice Hallucinations: A Critical Review (2010) by Álvaro Machado Dias

http://www.gjpsy.uni-goettingen.de/gjp-article-dias.pdf

Quote: ”… However, schizophrenia was 1.81 (95% CI 1.2–2.7) times higher amongst those with severe hearing loss, which may be preventable…” Source: Are there neurological and sensory risk factors for schizophrenia? Schizophrenia Research Volume 14, issue 3, Pages 247-251, February 1995

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7766536

Professor Tim Crow proposes that the human capacity for language can cause an integration disorder like this and I wonder if it is possible to categorize environmental and genetic risk factors with regards to what may cause conditioned reinforcer/incentive motivational learning as follows?

A.) What will make it necessary to restore a verbal message. (5 and 6)

B.) What may increase our internal drive to restore what seems to be a verbal message. (1,3,4 and 5)

C.) What will diminish our ability to devote enough attention to generate awareness of what we with regards to a certain goal will be doing. (2)

(To be exposed to a combination of environmental risk factors which together include A, B and C may substantially increase the risk of developing an integration disorder like this.)

Re: " SCHIZOPHRENIA " - the price we pay for language?

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:10 am
by stefan
Are people able to restore and better distinguish a verbal message when they lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response and with a short delay hear the sensory consequence of an internal gesture in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation?

Summary: To sometimes lose the ability to control what you are doing when you are forced to divide your attention between two similar tasks is a well known experience many people share and to be forced to divide your attention between what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear a certain voice (listening) and the inner voice you intend to produce with an internal gesture (covert speech) may due to a similarity (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce will automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce) result in that you lose the ability to control covert speech. (The attention you devote to a competing task can suppress the ability to generate an act of will with which you are able to control what you with regards to a certain goal must do to successfully execute the other task. The ability to successfully execute the other task (use alien covert speech to restore and better distinguish a verbal message) in spite of the fact that you lack the ability to control covert speech in response to a verbal message ought to rely on a sensitivity to the context you are exposed to and experience! To successfully execute the other task when you are trying to hear a certain voice is to produce a context dependent internal gesture with a more rather than a less equivalent sensory consequence.) The internal gestures you intend to produce (initiate) in response to the context you are exposed to (visual and auditory stimuli) and experience (knowledge derived from previous experiences and colored with emotion) will, without an act of will, be more environmentally influenced in response to auditory and visual stimuli than the gestures you intend to produce during overt speech (The effect of visual stimuli (Quote 25) or the sentence context you are exposed to and experience can make it possible to understand that multiple sources of information sometimes are used to generate the event we call perception and this would no doubt be virtually impossible if you were able to generate an act of will in response to what you are able to hear more objectively.). Some people are able to hear their thoughts in integration with non-verbal features which characterize the environmental sounds we all are able to hear more objectively and this has led to the conclusion that the internal gestures we intend to produce during covert speech can be used to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. The more environmentally influenced gestures you intend to produce in response to a more or less distorted verbal message can if so like the gestures you intend to produce during overt speech determine what you expect to hear. (Quote 1) What you are able to attend with a top-down sensory expectation like this will, when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce, automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce. To be forced to simultaneously perform two tasks (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear a certain voice and the inner voice you intend to produce with an internal gesture) will naturally demand more attention than to only perform one of them and two in some way similar tasks can be assumed to compete with each other more than two different tasks because the available attention capacity is set (limited) as if you were to perform only one task. (Quote 2 ) In other words the attention you devote to a competing task (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce) can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity more or less suppress the ability to control the other task (covert speech) and to more or less lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. (Quote 7 and 8 ) The threshold for action selection when you more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response ought to depend on attentional demands of what you are able to select with a top-down sensory expectation and your motivation to in a certain context produce a verbal response. A tendency to expect to access the information you need can motivate a verbal response (You are able to select the top-down motor expectation you need to use when several simultaneously are available and each determine their own top-down sensory expectation.) and attentional demands of what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce will besides the need to access a verbal message rely on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals. (Quote 9 ) To more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response when attentional demands of a competing task suppress the ability to control covert speech will serve the purpose of not letting an act of will interfere with the ability to select what you need to produce in response to a verbal message (internal gestures with a more rather than a less equivalent sensory consequence) and to no longer consciously, with regards to a certain goal, be able to choose how you respond ought to result in that you find it much harder to disregard the context you are exposed to and experience. (To consciously, with regards to a certain goal, be able to choose how you respond requires the ability to inhibit a verbal response as long as it takes to generate an act of will and to be able to inhibit a verbal response as long as it takes to generate an act of will would only interfere with the ability to select the rather equivalent sensory consequence we often need to produce in response to a verbal message. The McGurk (Quote 25) and the phonemic restoration effect can in response to visual stimuli make it possible to understand that multiple sources of information sometimes are used to generate the event we call perception (Quote 45) and this would no doubt be virtually impossible if you were able to generate an act of will in response to what you are able to hear more objectively. A goal directed behaviour is the outcome of competition between response tendencies, but a lowering of the threshold for action selection when attentional demands of all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation suppress the ability to inhibit a specific response will prevent the ability to generate an act of will in response to what you are able to hear more objectively (Quote 23). Competition between what you intend to produce (covert speech) and what you are able to select with a corresponding top-down sensory expectation (listening) will consequently result in that bottom-up sensory signals affect the outcome of competition between response tendencies.) In other words to more or less, depending on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals, lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response may result in that you are able to produce a context dependent internal gesture with the most equivalent sensory consequence possible. To be able to hear the sensory consequence of a context dependent internal gesture like this in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation will make it possible to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. (You are able to hear or maybe more correct change a serial auditory short term memory of what you heard objectively and remember hearing the sensory consequence of an internal gesture in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation when you use a sensory buffer of earlier auditory events.) To not be able to devote enough attention to generate the kind of self-awareness you need to control covert speech (when attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation suppress the ability to inhibit a verbal response) could be as essential to our ability to restore and better a verbal message as it can be devastating to people with an integration disorder like this.

To like Liberman (1957) consider the possibility that “the articulatory movements and their sensory effects mediate between the acoustic stimulus and the event we call perception” (without an act of will what can be referred to as alien covert speech) does not only seem to make it easier to understand how people are able to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. (Quote 19) An idea like this will also allow you to consider the possibility that auditory hallucinations and an integration disorder referred to as "schizophrenia" both originate from what you may learn if you for some reason more often restore what is or at least subjectively seems to be a verbal message. More recent findings (2009) can as far as I understand be used in support of the opinion that we are able to hear the sensory consequence of an internal gesture in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation. Quote 10: "...These findings indicate that motor circuits controlling production of speech sounds also contribute to their perception. Mapping acoustically highly variable speech sounds onto less variable motor representations may facilitate their phonemic categorization and be important for robust speech perception..."

The inner voice we experience when we sometimes in response to several voices are able to remember a certain voice could more or less (depending on if it´s a familiar voice or not) be the sensory consequence of an internal gesture corresponding to the specific gesture with which the speaker produced (or was expected to produce) an equivalent voice overtly. The voice we remember and maybe imitate or like sometimes imagine hearing is a much more voiced inner voice than we normally produce during covert speech. We are not able to overtly imitate the voice we hear and by doing this generate an equivalent external voice, but the internal gestures we must use to be able to produce an equivalent inner voice in response to a verbal message do not necessary follow the natural boundaries of overt speech. What we remember has been referred to as a brief mental echo which continues to sound for a short period of time, but to be able to use a sensory buffer of earlier auditory events (an echoic memory) will allow us to change what we heard objectively when we need to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. ( - I´m able to change a short term memory of nonverbal sounds about the length of a syllable by integrating my present inner voice with past auditory experiences and most people are able to restore a word in the middle of a sentence with the information they get later in that sentence when they use a sensory buffer of earlier auditory events. "... It has long been thought that echoic memory plays an important role in speech perception..." (Quote 13 ) and experiences like these can make it easier to understand that you with a short delay are able to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. An echoic memory is a parallel auditory short term memory and the kind of sensory buffer of earlier auditory events (precatigorical acoustic storage) we need to use to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. You are able to hear (or maybe more correct change a serial auditory short term memory of what you heard objectively and remember hearing) the sensory consequence of an internal gesture in integration with all features matching a corresponding top-down sensory expectation when you use a sensory buffer of earlier auditory events. This is only my attempt to understand an echoic memory! Read quote 20 and 13 or whatever you can find about echoic memories to understand this better.)

An ability to associate, when verbal stimuli consistently co-occur with the specific gesture with which they are produced overtly, can not only make it possible to remember the sensory consequence of overt speech when a corresponding internal gesture is produced and hereby generate the internal voice we experience during covert speech. To be able to associate verbal stimuli with an internal gesture corresponding to the specific gesture with which they are produced overtly and vice versa can in response to a verbal message help us select (initiate) an internal gesture with a more or less equivalent sensory consequence. However the gesture we intend to produce will sometimes depend more on the context we are exposed to and experience than what we are able to hear more objectively and can not in response to ambiguous stimuli be selected thanks to an ability to associate like this. (Quote 22) Nor are we able to overtly imitate the voice we hear and by doing this generate an equivalent external voice, but the internal gestures we must use to be able to produce an equivalent inner voice do not necessary follow the natural boundaries of overt speech. ( 1.) Our ability to imagine doing things do not always reflect what we are able to do, but may to some extent reflect our ability to generate the more or less equivalent internal voice we need to produce. 2.) I assume that humans evolved the ability to use an internal response which can help us learn to speak while other species which did not evolve the ability to speak can use an entirely different internal response to categorize verbal stimuli. (Read quote 35) An internal response (overtly established or not) would as part of an inherited tendency to respond co-occur with a verbal stimulus and can if so thanks to our ability to associate determine the top-down sensory expectation and sensory consequence we need to use to generate the event we call perception. In other words the internal response we need to use to generate the event we call perception does not necessary correspond to the gesture the speaker produced overtly.) The attention you devote to the competing task (listening) can when you divide your attention between two tasks due to a similarity (what you are able to attend when you are trying to hear the voice you intend to produce will automatically correspond to some features matching the sensory consequence you intend to produce) more or less suppress the ability to control the other task (covert speech) and to more or less lack the ability to consciously control covert speech with regards to a certain goal is to more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response. (Quote 8 ) The assumption that a lowering of the threshold for action selection when you more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response depend on attentional demands of what you are able to select with a top-down sensory expectation and that attentional demands of what you select besides the need to access a verbal message rely on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals can be used in an attempt to understand this better. (Quote 9 To expect to access the information you need (a verbal message is expected to satisfy an internal drive) in response to what you are able to hear objectively (a reinforcer) ought to activate a drive representation or "emotion node" which can motivate a verbal response and increase attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation! Quote 24, 27 and 28 ) Can not attentional demands of all features matching a top-down sensory expectation more or less suppress the ability to inhibit a verbal response (a better verbal and non-verbal match between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals can if so initiate an internal gesture with a more equivalent sensory consequence) and will this not simultaneously result in a sensitivity to the context we are exposed to and experience (a non-verbal match between a top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals can if so initiate a context dependent internal gesture with a verbally less equivalent sensory consequence)? To more or less lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response will serve the purpose of not letting an act of will interfere with the ability to select what you need to produce in response to a verbal message (internal gestures with a more rather than a less equivalent sensory consequence) and to no longer consciously, with regards to a certain goal, be able to choose how you respond ought to result in that you find it much harder to disregard the context you are exposed to and experience. In other words to more or less, depending on how well a top-down sensory expectation matches bottom-up sensory signals, lack the ability to inhibit a verbal response may result in that you are able to produce a context dependent internal gesture with the most equivalent sensory consequence possible. (You select the top-down motor expectation you use when several simultaneously are available and each determine their own top-down sensory expectation. To select the top-down motor expectation you use is to associate a verbal stimulus (sometimes both auditory and visual stimuli) with a top-down motor expectation, be motivated to produce and lack the ability to inhibit a specific response. A better verbal and non-verbal match between a corresponding top-down sensory expectation and bottom-up sensory signals can increase attentional demands of the competing task more than when you use any other to a lesser extent matching top-down sensory expectation... Read quote 1 and 33 and draw your own conclusion) To be able to hear the sensory consequence of a context dependent internal gesture like this in integration with all features matching (and previously selected with) a corresponding top-down sensory expectation will make it possible to restore and better distinguish a verbal message. (A verbal mismatch may result in an ability to inhibit (and to in comparison with a more appropriate response be able to change) the internal gesture you intend to produce as long as you evaluate and need to evaluate the sensory consequence you intend to produce. The threshold for action selection will whenever you get a verbal match due to an increase in attentional demands of the competing task be lower and maybe quickly result in a that the best match between what you expect to hear and hear more objectively in response to a more or less distorted verbal message is selected. )...

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