Rehfeldt, Sophie (2022) Investigating Auditory Perception in a Signal Detection Task during Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are not only reported by psychotic individuals but also by the general population. Research points to the involvement of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) in generating AVH; however, it is still unclear which role the STG plays in experiencing different types of auditory stimuli. The current study investigated this by employing a signal detection task during transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation (tDCS), in which participants were asked to either detect voice or tone stimuli. A non-clinical sample of 24 students and staff members from University of Groningen participated in a three-session study, each session consisting of tDCS over the STG, occipital cortex, or sham stimulation. It was expected that participants showed a biased form of responding to the auditory stimuli in the STG condition, namely that they were more willing to erroneously detect speech stimuli even though none were actually presented. Repeated measures analysis of variance could not find evidence for this response bias in the STG condition; however, a significantly reduced response bias was found for the stimulus type voice, pointing to distinctive mechanisms for perceiving auditory stimuli. Task sensitivity was investigated as secondary analysis, finding a reduced sensitivity for the stimulus type voice, regardless of stimulation condition. Additionally, subjective experiences during tDCS were inspected. Our results give rise to the question whether tDCS can be considered an efficacious tool to modulate auditory cortices. Limitations of the current study are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented, highlighting the importance of applying stricter stimulation protocols. Keywords: auditory verbal hallucinations, AVH, transcranial Direct-Current stimulation, tDCS, signal detection task
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Aleman, A. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Neuropsychology (CN) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 02 May 2022 09:16 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2022 09:16 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/429 |
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