EVENT: Psychology Colloquium: Dr. Thomas Whitford: Why you can't tickle yourself - and why it matters for schizophrenia

Presenter: Dr. Thomas Whitford

Dr. Thomas Whitford is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). His research is based around using electroencephalography (EEG) and neuroimaging to explore the neutral basis of schizophrenia. Tom completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2007. He then completed Postdoctoral research positions at Harvard University (2008-2010) and the University of Melbourne (2010-2011) before joining UNSW in 2012. In 2014 Tom was awarded a Young Tall Poppy Award from the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, and was chosen to represent the Psychology Foundation of Australia at the annual Science Meets Parliament function in Parliament House, Canberra. In 2015 Tom was awarded a Career Development Fellowship from the NHMRC. Tom is currently the Barbara and John Streicker Investigator at the NARSAD Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation in the USA.

Title: Why you can't tickle yourself- and why it matters for schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT

Self-generated sensations typically feel less salient than externally-generated sensations, with the fact that it is difficult to tickle oneself as a well-known example. Consistent with this phenomenon, it is well-established that self produced sensations, such as the sound of one's own voice, evoke less activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG) than do physically identical, externally-produced sensations.

There is growing evidence to suggest that this normative process of 'sensory self-suppression' is abnormal in people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia patients do not appear to exhibit the normative suppression of EEG activity to self-generated speech; that is, they do not appear to make a fundamental sensory distinction between self-generated and externally-generated stimuli. These 'sensory self-suppression' abnormalities have been argued to underlie some of the most bizarre yet characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions of control, in which patients misattribute self-generated actions to external agents.

In this talk I will review evidence from the human and animal literature for the process of 'sensory self-suppression', as well as the evidence that that this process is abnormal in people with schizophrenia. I will also discuss studies (both EEG and behavioural) from my own laboratory which suggest that self-suppression abnormalities may not be limited to people with established schizophrenia, but may also be present in non-clinical, highly schizotypal individuals.