Do you hear what I hear?
Our voice is the most common voice that we hear and recognize in our everyday lives. Research has shown that alterations in the way we perceive our own voice may result in voice hearing or auditory verbal hallucinations. This talk will focus on understanding why some people hear voices even when no one is actually speaking to them.
Have you ever heard a weird beeping sound inside your head? Do you experience it every now and then? Or maybe you’re already very familiar with it and can filter it out in order to do your daily tasks? In this talk I will explain the phenomenon of tinnitus, how it is showing in the brain and how it can be explained in terms of sensory processing of auditory stimuli.
Tinnitus is a common disorder that affects a large portion of the population. It involves struggles in multiple aspects of daily life and bears a large financial and social burden on society. However, to date there is no curative treatment for tinnitus. In order to alleviate the burden on the patient's personal life a psychological treatment can be used. Unfortunately this psychological approach does not suffice for a small number of patients. For this reason we are exploring medical treatment options, such as deep brain stimulation, that go beyond coping with the tinnitus sound.
Jana Devos
Doctoral candidate and psychologist
Maastricht University
