title: The effect of arousal on auditory threat detection and the relationship to auditory hallucinations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A recent model of a subtype of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) has proposed such experiences may result from increased arousal altering auditory threat perception.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study considered this theory using undergraduate students who undertook a new experimental paradigm, the Auditory Threat Discrimination Task (ATDT). This examined the effects of arousal on auditory threat perception (Study 1), and its relation to hallucination-proneness (Study 2).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Study 1 (n = 66) found evidence that the high, as compared to low-arousal condition, was associated with a higher level of accurate and false threat detection (as measured by both number of hits and false-alarms). Study 2 addressed some methodological limitations of Study 1 and also found that the high as compared to low-arousal condition, was associated with a higher level of threat detection. Study 2 also found that high hallucination prone participants (n = 20) reported a higher level of perceived threat (as measured by both number of hits and false-alarms), compared to low hallucination prone participants (n = 20).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall limitations of the work included use of a non-clinical group. Also the increased arousal induced by the experiment was modest and may not fully represent the processes in operation in clinical participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide some initial evidence that auditory threat detection increases under conditions of arousal, and are consistent with the proposal that some AVHs may result from hypervigilance to auditory threat.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, UK. Electronic address: r.e.j.dudley@ncl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dudley
authors.affiliation: Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dodgson
authors.affiliation: Newcastle University, UK.
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sarll
authors.affiliation: Newcastle University, UK.
authors.forename: Racheal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Halhead
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Newcastle University, UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bolas
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McCarthy-Jones
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Hallucinations; Threat