Resampling (Narrative) Stream of Consciousness: Mind Wandering, Inner Speech, and Reading as Reversed Introspection (2022)
Journal Article
Bernini, M., & Fernyhough, C. (2022). Resampling (Narrative) Stream of Consciousness: Mind Wandering, Inner Speech, and Reading as Reversed Introspection. MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, 68(4), 639-667. https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2022.0045

This article promotes the idea that current cognitive models of mind wandering and inner speech can help us better understanding the phenomenological constituents of what Joyce calls “the mystery of the conscious” as simulated by modernist literary i... Read More about Resampling (Narrative) Stream of Consciousness: Mind Wandering, Inner Speech, and Reading as Reversed Introspection.

Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis (2022)
Journal Article
Dudley, R., Watson, F., O'Grady, L., Aynsworth, C., Dodgson, G., Common, S., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis. Psychiatry Research, 319(2023), Article 114988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114988

Hallucinations can occur in single or multiple sensory modalities. This study explored how common these experiences were in people with first episode of psychosis (n = 82). Particular attention was paid to the number of modalities reported and whethe... Read More about Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis.

Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices (2022)
Journal Article
Moseley, P., Powell, A., Woods, A., Fernyhough, C., & Alderson-Day, B. (2022). Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 48(5), 1066-1074. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac054

Background and Hypothesis: Voice-hearing in clinical and nonclinical groups has previously been compared using standardized assessments of psychotic experiences. Findings from several studies suggest that nonclinical voice-hearing is distinguished by... Read More about Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices.

Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial (2022)
Journal Article
Dudley, R., Dodgson, G., Common, S., O'Grady, L., Watson, F., Gibbs, C., …Aynsworth, C. (2022). Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial. BMJ Open, 12(5), Article e061827. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061827

Introduction Hallucinations (hearing or seeing things that others do not) are a common feature of psychosis, causing significant distress and disability. Existing treatments such as cognitive–behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) have modest benef... Read More about Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial.

Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology (2022)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., Mitrenga, K., Moffatt, J., Lee, R., Foxwell, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 53(8), 3692-3700. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722000344

Background Experiences of felt presence (FP) are well documented in neurology, neuropsychology and bereavement research, but systematic research in relation to psychopathology is limited. FP is a feature of sensorimotor disruption in psychosis, hypna... Read More about Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology.

Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech (2022)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Lima, C. F., Krishnan, S., Fernyhough, C., Scott, S. K., …Evans, S. (2022). Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2022(1), Article niac002. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niac002

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs)—or hearing voices—occur in clinical and non-clinical populations, but their mechanisms remain unclear. Predictive processing models of psychosis have proposed that hallucinations arise from an over-weighting of p... Read More about Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech.

Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (2022)
Journal Article
Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Common, S., Dodgson, G., Lee, R., Mitrenga, K., …Fernyhough, C. (2022). Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Clinical Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211059802

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are typically associated with schizophrenia but also occur in individuals without any need for care (nonclinical voice hearers [NCVHs]). Cognitive models of AVHs posit potential biases in source monitoring, top-d... Read More about Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations.

Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group (2020)
Journal Article
Dodgson, G., Aynsworth, C., Mitrenga, K. J., Gibbs, C., Patton, V., Fernyhough, C., …Common, S. (2021). Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94(3), 481 - 503. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12323

Objectives To conduct a feasibility study on a new, tablet-delivered treatment for unusual sensory experiences in service-users with an At Risk Mental States for psychosis. Design A mixed method design was employed, using content analysis to investig... Read More about Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group.

Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study (2020)
Journal Article
Dodgson, G., Alderson-Day, B., Smailes, D., Ryles, F., Mayer, C., Glen-Davison, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2021). Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 49(3), 287-301. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1352465820000661

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is a recommended treatment for psychotic experiences, but its effectiveness has been questioned. One way of addressing this may be to tailor therapy materials to the phenomenology of spec... Read More about Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study.

Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech (2020)
Journal Article
Moffatt, J., Mitrenga, K. J., Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech. PLoS ONE, 15(9), Article e0238920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238920

Ruminative thought is a style of thinking which involves repetitively focusing upon one’s own negative mood, its causes and its consequences. The negative effects of rumination are well-documented, but comparatively little is known about how ruminati... Read More about Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech.

Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network (2020)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Bernini, M., Mitrenga, K., Yao, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(9), 1637-1653. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01571

Stories transport readers into vivid imaginative worlds, but understanding how readers create such worlds—populating them with characters, objects, and events—presents serious challenges across disciplines. Auditory imagery is thought to play a promi... Read More about Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network.

‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices (2020)
Journal Article
Foxwell, J., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Woods, A. (2020). ‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices. Consciousness and Cognition, 79, Article 102901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102901

Writers often report vivid experiences of hearing characters talking to them, talking back to them, and exhibiting independence and autonomy. However, systematic empirical studies of this phenomenon are almost non-existent, and as a result little is... Read More about ‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices.

Reading characters in voices: Ratings of personality characteristics from voices predict proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations (2019)
Journal Article
Mitrenga, K. J., Alderson-Day, B., May, L., Moffatt, J., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2019). Reading characters in voices: Ratings of personality characteristics from voices predict proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations. PLoS ONE, 14(8), Article e0221127. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221127

People rapidly make first impressions of others, often based on very little information–minimal exposure to faces or voices is sufficient for humans to make up their mind about personality of others. While there has been considerable research on voic... Read More about Reading characters in voices: Ratings of personality characteristics from voices predict proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations.

Imaginary companions, inner speech and auditory verbal hallucinations: What are the relations? (2019)
Journal Article
Fernyhough, C., Watson, A., Bernini, M., Moseley, P., & Alderson-Day, B. (2019). Imaginary companions, inner speech and auditory verbal hallucinations: What are the relations?. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1665. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01665

Interacting with imaginary companions (ICs) is now considered a natural part of childhood for many children, and has been associated with a range of positive developmental outcomes. Recent research has explored how the phenomenon of ICs in childhood... Read More about Imaginary companions, inner speech and auditory verbal hallucinations: What are the relations?.

The auditory‐verbal hallucinations of Welsh–English bilingual people (2019)
Journal Article
Hadden, L. M., Alderson‐Day, B., Jackson, M., Fernyhough, C., & Bentall, R. P. (2020). The auditory‐verbal hallucinations of Welsh–English bilingual people. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 93(1), 122-133. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12234

Objectives: Psychological models of voice‐hearing propose that auditory‐verbal hallucinations occur when inner speech is attributed to a source external to the self. Approximately half of the world's population is multilingual, and the extent to whic... Read More about The auditory‐verbal hallucinations of Welsh–English bilingual people.

Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey (2018)
Journal Article
Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Kumar, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 83-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.009

Musical hallucinations (MH) account for a significant proportion of auditory hallucinations, but there is a relative lack of research into their phenomenology. In contrast, much research has focused on other forms of internally generated musical expe... Read More about Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey.

The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology (2018)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Mitrenga, K., Wilkinson, S., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 48-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.001

Inner speech is a common experience for many but hard to measure empirically. The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) has been used to link everyday phenomenology of inner speech – such as inner dialogue – to various psychopathological tra... Read More about The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology.

Distinct Processing of Ambiguous Speech in People with Non-Clinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (2017)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Lima, C., Evans, S., Krishnan, S., Shanmugalingam, P., Fernyhough, C., & Scott, S. (2017). Distinct Processing of Ambiguous Speech in People with Non-Clinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Brain, 140(9), 2475-2489. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx206

Auditory verbal hallucinations (hearing voices) are typically associated with psychosis, but a minority of the general population also experience them frequently and without distress. Such ‘non-clinical’ experiences offer a rare and unique opportunit... Read More about Distinct Processing of Ambiguous Speech in People with Non-Clinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations.

Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences (2017)
Journal Article
Alderson-Day, B., Bernini, M., & Fernyhough, C. (2017). Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences. Consciousness and Cognition, 49, 98-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.01.003

Readers often describe vivid experiences of voices and characters in a manner that has been likened to hallucination. Little is known, however, of how common such experiences are, nor the individual differences they may reflect. Here we present the r... Read More about Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences.

Can inner experience be apprehended in high fidelity? Examining brain activation and experience from multiple perspectives (2017)
Journal Article
Hurlburt, R., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Kühn, S. (2017). Can inner experience be apprehended in high fidelity? Examining brain activation and experience from multiple perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 43. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00043

We discuss the historical context for explorations of “pristine inner experience,” attempts to apprehend and describe the inner experiences that directly present themselves in natural environments. There is no generally accepted method for determinin... Read More about Can inner experience be apprehended in high fidelity? Examining brain activation and experience from multiple perspectives.