Real-Time Symptom Capture of Hallucinations in Schizophrenia with fMRI: Absence of Duration-Dependent Activity.

Background: While advances in the field of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provide new opportunities to study brain networks underlying the experience of hallucinations in psychosis, there are methodological challenges unique to symptom-capture studies.

Study Design: We extracted brain networks activated during hallucination-capture for schizophrenia patients when fMRI data collected from two sites was merged (combined = 27). A multidimensional analysis technique was applied, which would allow separation of brain networks involved in the hallucinatory experience itself from those involved in the motor response of indicating the beginning and end of the perceived hallucinatory experience.