Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Schizophr Bull. 2023 Feb 24;49(12 Suppl 2):S25-S32. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbac064.
The social deafferentation hypothesis (SDA) has been proposed as an explanatory mechanism of hallucinations, based on the theory that social withdrawal triggers the initial phase of schizophrenia. The current study tests the SDA by assessing how loneliness is associated with different types of hallucinations. Under the SDA, increased loneliness is hypothesized to affect the occurrence of hallucinations that carry social meaning, but not of nonsocial hallucinations.
As part of an online survey, 2038 adolescents and young adults from the general population (median age 21 years; 75% female) filled out the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences, and the shortened De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Binomial logistic regression was used to investigate the effects of loneliness severity on past month prevalence of hallucinations, and on the presence of social versus nonsocial hallucinations.
Loneliness increased the prevalence of hallucinations across modalities in the past month. Moreover, stronger degree of loneliness increased the likelihood of hearing voices or laughter, and of hallucinating being touched. Conversely, loneliness decreased the likelihood of experiencing the nonsocial hallucination of a tingling feeling. As expected, loneliness did not increase the prevalence of experiencing nonsocial hallucinations. Surprisingly, neither was loneliness associated with experiencing felt presence.
Our results are novel in showing that loneliness specifically increases the likelihood of hearing human sounds such as voices or laughter, or feeling a human touch. Hallucinations without social meaning were not more likely to be experienced with increasing loneliness. This forms a confirmation of the SDA.
社会去传入假说（SDA）已被提出作为幻觉的解释机制，其基于社交退缩引发精神分裂症初始阶段的理论。本研究通过评估孤独感与不同类型幻觉的关系来检验 SDA。根据 SDA，孤独感的增加被假设会影响具有社会意义的幻觉的发生，但不会影响非社会性幻觉的发生。
作为在线调查的一部分，来自普通人群的 2038 名青少年和年轻人（中位数年龄 21 岁；75%为女性）填写了精神病体验问卷和缩短的 Jong Gierveld 孤独感量表。二项逻辑回归用于研究孤独感严重程度对过去一个月幻觉发生率的影响，以及对社会幻觉与非社会幻觉的存在的影响。
孤独感增加了过去一个月所有类型幻觉的发生率。此外，孤独感程度越强，越有可能听到声音或笑声，以及感觉到被触摸。相反，孤独感降低了体验到非社会性幻觉（如刺痛感）的可能性。正如预期的那样，孤独感并不会增加体验非社会性幻觉的发生率。令人惊讶的是，孤独感也与体验到存在感无关。
我们的研究结果表明，孤独感特别增加了听到人声（如声音或笑声）或感觉到有人触摸的可能性，这是新颖的。没有社会意义的幻觉并不随着孤独感的增加而更有可能被体验到。这证实了 SDA。
