The psychotomimetic effects of short-term sensory deprivation.

Full Abstract

People experiencing sensory deprivation often report perceptual disturbances such as hallucinations, especially over extended periods of time. However, there is little evidence concerning short-term sensory deprivation and whether its effects differ depending on the individual concerned, and in particular their proneness to psychosis. This study explored whether perceptual disturbances could be elicited by a brief period of complete isolation from sound and vision in both highly hallucination prone and nonhallucination prone groups. Greater psychotomimetic experiences taking the form of perceptual disturbances, paranoia, and anhedonia were found across both groups when under sensory deprivation. In addition, hallucination-prone individuals experienced more perceptual disturbances when placed in short-term sensory deprivation than nonprone individuals. This result is discussed in terms of difficulties in source monitoring as a possible mechanism involved in proneness to hallucinations.

Author information

Author/s: Mason, Oliver J (OJ); Brady, Francesca (F);

Affiliation: Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom. o.mason(-atsign-)ucl.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of nervous and mental disease (J Nerv Ment Dis), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 197 (issue 10) : pp 783-5

Dates: Created 2009/10/15; Completed 2009/10/29;

PMID: 19829208, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/29/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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