Ana Pinheiro | “From voice to speaker: computational mechanisms of self-voice perception and hallucinated agents”
Clinical neuroscience \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre
How does the brain know a voice is truly one’s own? Self-voice processing integrates sensory evidence with motor-related predictions generated during speech, enabling the distinction between self-generated and external voices. Drawing on behavioral and neuroimaging research across the psychosis continuum, I argue that alterations in these mechanisms provide a principled framework for understanding auditory hallucinations. Within this framework, hallucinated voices are reconceptualized as failures of self-other voice distinction. Centering self-voice processing bridges action, perception, and personal identity, opening new mechanistic pathways for computational psychiatry and translational neuroscience.