Somesthetic Hallucinations and Motility in Schizophrenia: Neurophysiological Views and Information Flow Model

Abstract

Clinical study of three schizophrenic men without known seizure disorders has heuristic implications, pointing to neurophysiological factors in their somesthetic hallucinations: (a) In two instances the body areas involved in such hallucinations (the abdominal cavity and the top of one foot) also happen to be represented side by side on the “map” of the receptive somesthetic areas at the postcentral gyrus. (b) In all three schizophrenic men the occurrence of their somesthetic hallucinations can be conceptualized along the lines of MacKay's (1970) information flow model for perception in general, with some specific modifications, which center around the key roles of sufficient change occurring in two specific aspects of this model. (c) Further conceptualization is suggested within Grey Walter's (1973) testable model of triple association among Conditional, Imperative and Operant Response—albeit mostly in reverse sequence with respect to somesthetic hallucinations under discussion. These schizophrenic men reveal in their past and present experiences a pattern in which the sequence of events is initiated through changes at the efferent side (restriction of voluntary motility), which trigger afferent experiences, albeit hallucinated ones. Practical implications center around the probably salutary role of voluntary motility performed purposefully and at the person's own pace.