The Hitchhiker's guide to hallucination research.
Inés Abalo-Rodríguez, Ana P. Pinheiro
Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2025.103941 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Experimental tasks Hallucinations Interdisciplinarity Methodology Psychosis |
| Key findings | The article serves as an entry-level guide posing critical questions for designing hallucination research, covering conceptual issues, experimental paradigms, rating instruments, and key variables. |
Abstract
Hallucination research is a fast‑growing, inherently interdisciplinary field bridging psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and philosophy. This article maps out key conceptual and methodological issues underlying the study of hallucinations. We begin by unpacking core theoretical issues - how hallucinations differ from other perceptual alterations, whether they form a single construct or several, and how these distinctions influence study design and interpretation. Next, we review the most commonly used experimental paradigms. A clear distinction is drawn between tasks that measure enduring hallucinatory tendencies and those that capture hallucinations in real time. We also review the most widely used rating instruments - including confidence scales - and discuss the phenomenological approach, which foregrounds participants' first‑person experience. The final section offers a concise, though not exhaustive, checklist of variables researchers must account for - ranging from sensory modality and context to cognitive style, affective state, and cultural background. Taken together, the article serves as an entry‑level guide, posing critical questions that every researcher should answer before designing a study on hallucinations.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics | 2008 | Review article | |
| Phenomenology, Structure, and Dynamic of Psychedelic States | 2016 | Review | |
| Classic Hallucinogens and Mystical Experiences: Phenomenology and Neural Correlates. | 2018 | Review | |
| The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics. Individuals with lived experience of psychosis, family members, and carers | 2022 | Co-written bottom-up review | |
| From autopoiesis to neurophenomenology: Francisco Varela's exploration of the biophysics of being. | 2003 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cites 38
- Default Mode Network Activity and Connectivity in Psychopathology Annual Review of Clinical Psychology March 29, 2012
- Serotonin research: contributions to understanding psychoses TIPS - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences August 1, 2008
- Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake Frontiers in Psychiatry July 10, 2018
- Substance-Induced Psychoses: An Updated Literature Review Frontiers in Psychiatry December 23, 2021
- The socialization of hallucinations: Cultural priors, social interactions, and contextual factors in the use of psychedelics. Transcultural Psychiatry October 1, 2022
and 33 more in the library