Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Northumbria, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK.
Cortex. 2019 Apr;113:267-278. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.12.020. Epub 2019 Jan 14.
Proneness to unusual perceptual states - such as auditory or visual hallucinations - has been proposed to exist on a continuum in the general population, but whether there is a cognitive basis for such a continuum remains unclear. Intentional cognitive inhibition (the ability to wilfully control thoughts and memories) is one mechanism that has been linked to auditory hallucination susceptibility, but most evidence to date has been drawn from clinical samples only. Moreover, such a link has yet to be demonstrated over and above relations to other cognitive skills (source monitoring) and cognitive states (intrusive thoughts) that often correlate with both inhibition and hallucinations. The present study deployed two tests of intentional inhibition ability - the Inhibition of Currently Irrelevant Memories (ICIM) task and Directed Forgetting (DF) task - and one test of source monitoring (a source memory task) to examine how cognitive task performance relates to self-reported i) auditory hallucination-proneness and ii) susceptibility to intrusive thoughts in a non-clinical student sample (N = 76). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the independent and combined contributions of task performance to proneness scores. ICIM performance but not DF or source memory scores were significantly related to both hallucination-proneness and intrusive thoughts. Further analysis suggested that intrusive thoughts may mediate the link between intentional inhibition skills and auditory hallucination-proneness, suggesting a potential pathway from inhibition to perception via intrusions in cognition. The implications for studying cognitive mechanisms of hallucination and their role in "continuum" views of psychosis-like experiences are discussed.
易出现异常知觉状态（如听觉或视觉幻觉）倾向被认为存在于普通人群的连续体中，但这种连续体是否存在认知基础尚不清楚。有意认知抑制（有意控制思想和记忆的能力）是与听觉幻觉易感性相关的一种机制，但迄今为止，大多数证据仅来自临床样本。此外，这种联系尚未在与其他认知技能（来源监测）和认知状态（侵入性思维）相关的关系之外得到证明，这些认知状态通常与抑制和幻觉都有关。本研究使用了两种有意抑制能力测试——当前无关记忆抑制（ICIM）任务和定向遗忘（DF）任务，以及一种来源监测测试（来源记忆任务），以检查认知任务表现如何与自我报告的 i）听觉幻觉倾向和 ii）非临床学生样本中侵入性思维的易感性相关（N=76）。分层回归分析用于评估任务表现对倾向得分的独立和综合贡献。ICIM 表现而非 DF 或来源记忆得分与幻觉倾向和侵入性思维显著相关。进一步的分析表明，侵入性思维可能在有意抑制技能和听觉幻觉倾向之间起中介作用，这表明抑制通过认知中的侵入性可能与感知之间存在潜在途径。讨论了研究幻觉认知机制及其在精神病样体验“连续体”观点中的作用的意义。
