Recent research indicates that brain response patterns could serve as biomarkers for psychosis risk, with participants who have schizophrenia but haven't experienced hallucinations recently showing intermediate neural responses.

Professor Whitford highlights the potential of these findings to predict who might develop psychosis and emphasizes the importance of understanding biological causes to create new treatments for schizophrenia.

Researchers are exploring whether neural measures can predict the transition to psychosis, which could enable early detection and intervention in high-risk individuals.

A study published in the Schizophrenia Bulletin reveals that in healthy individuals, inner speech reduces activity in the auditory cortex through predictive mechanisms, but this reduction does not occur in those experiencing auditory hallucinations, where brain activity actually increases.

This reversal of typical brain response supports the theory that auditory hallucinations stem from the brain's failure to distinguish inner speech from external voices, providing strong evidence for this hypothesis.

Research conducted by UNSW Sydney psychologists offers compelling evidence that hallucinations in schizophrenia may result from the brain's inability to recognize its own inner speech, which could help identify biological markers for the disorder.

This research represents a significant step toward developing biological indicators for schizophrenia, addressing the current lack of specific blood tests or scans, and holds promise for early detection and intervention.

Understanding these biological mechanisms is crucial for developing more effective treatments for schizophrenia, as current diagnostic methods lack precise biological markers.

The study involved EEG measurements of brainwave responses from three groups—individuals with schizophrenia experiencing recent auditory verbal hallucinations, those with schizophrenia but no recent hallucinations, and healthy controls—showing distinct neural responses during speech imagination and hearing sounds.