Trouble du contrôle de la parole intérieure : cas des hallucinations auditives verbales (Inner speech monitoring deficit : a study of auditory verbal hallucinations) [in French]

________________________________________________________ Inner speech monitoring deficit : a study of auditory verbal hallucinations Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are speech perceptions in the absence of relevant external stimuli. Some accounts of AVHs claim that a deficit in inner speech monitoring causes the own verbal thoughts of the patient to be perceived as external voices. These theories have been developed using a classical speech motor control model, in which self-monitoring can be implemented. In order to examine the inner speech monitoring deficit account, the present study aimed at collecting speech muscle activity during AVHs, overt speech and rest. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was used on eleven schizophrenia patients. Our results show an increase in muscular activity in the orbicularis oris inferior muscle during non-subvocalized AVHs, as compared with rest. This evidence that AVHs are self-generated inner speech is discussed in the framework of a speech motor control model. MOTS-CLES: orbiculaires de la bouche, contrôle moteur de la parole, hallucinations auditives verbales, parole intérieure, agentivité, sEMG, schizophrénie