Differentiating actual auditory hallucinations from "sounds" or a normal internal dialogue is important since the latter phenomena are not indicative of mental illness. Methods
To explore the auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia, experimental neurocognitive use approaches such as dichotic listening, structural fMRI, and functional fMRI. Together, they allow insight into how the brain reacts to auditory stimuli, be they external or internal. Such methods allowed researchers to find a correlation between a decreased gray matter of the left temporal lobe and difficulties in processing external sound stimuli in hallucinating patients.Functional neuroimaging has shown increased blood and oxygen flow to speech-related areas of the left temporal lobe, including Brocas area and the thalamus. Causes
The causes of auditory hallucinations are unclear. It is suspected that deficits in the left temporal lobe attribute that lead to spontaneous neural activity cause speech misrepresentations that account for auditory hallucinations.Charles Fernyhough, of the University of Durham, poses one theory among many but stands as a reasonable example of the literature. Given standing evidence towards the involvement of the inner voice in auditory hallucinations, he proposes two alternative hypotheses on the origins of auditory hallucinations in the non-psychotic. They both rely on an understanding of the internalization process of the inner voice. Internalization of the inner voice
The internalization process of the inner voice is the process of creating an inner voice during early childhood and can be separated into four distinct levels.Level one (external dialogue) involves the capacity to maintain an external dialogue with another person, i.e. a toddler talking with their parent(s).
Stimmler syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive congenital disorder first described by Stimmler et al. in 1970. It is characterized by dwarfism, diabetes, a small head, and high levels of alanine in the urine. Symptoms
Symptoms for the disease include microcephaly, a low birth weight, dwarfism, small teeth, and diabetes. The symptoms of Stimmler syndrome are closely related to a disease studied by Haworth et al. in 1967 as well as Leigh subacute necrotizing encephalopathy with lactic acidosis

Pathophysiology
Stimmler syndrome is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder whose symptoms appear before birth or during infancy. In a study of two sisters born within a year of each other, both with Stimmler syndrome, it was found that high levels of alanine, pyruvate, and lactate were present in both the blood and urine. It was believed that the alanine was derived from the pyruvate. Diagnosis
Treatment
References


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