People with schizophrenia can be
trained by playing a video game to control the part of the brain linked to
verbal hallucinations, researchers say. Patients in a small study were able to
land a rocket in the game when it was connected to the brain region sensitive
to speech and human voices. In time, the patients learnt to use the technique
in their daily lives to reduce the power of hallucinations. But this is a small
pilot study and the findings still need to be confirmed. The research team,
from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and
Neuroscience and the University of Roehampton, says the technique could be used
to help schizophrenia patients who do not respond to medication.
People with the condition are
known to have a more active auditory cortex, which means they are more
sensitive to sounds and voices. All 12 patients in the study experienced nasty
and threatening verbal hallucinations every day - a common symptom of
schizophrenia. To try to control their symptoms, they were asked to play a
video game while in an MRI scanner, using their own mental strategies to move a
computerised rocket - and in doing so they were able to turn down the volume on
the external voices they heard as well. all the patients in the study, who each
had four turns in the MRI scanner, found that their voices became less external
and more internal, making them less stressful. They were also better able to
cope with them.
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