"Seeing Rain": Integrating phenomenological and Bayesian predictive coding approaches to visual hallucinations and self-disturbances (Ichstörungen) in schizophrenia.

A schizophrenia patient who reported 'seeing rain' along with bodily sensations that isolated him from his surroundings is examined to understand how visual and multimodal hallucinations contribute to self-disturbances (Ichstörungen). Self-disturbances, as described by the early Heidelberg School, involve the self experiencing its own automatic mental processes as alien (a split-off 'doubled-I') or, in 'I-paralysis,' attributing disruptions to external omnipotent agents. These disturbances reflect an impaired ability to predict moment-to-moment experiences in the perception-action cycle. The phenomenological analysis complements computational models of psychosis based on hierarchical predictive coding. Self-disturbances appear to play an adaptive, compensatory role following the uncoupling of perception and action.

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Abstract

We present a schizophrenia patient who reports "seeing rain" with attendant somatosensory features which separate him from his surroundings. Because visual/multimodal hallucinations are understudied in schizophrenia, we examine a case history to determine the role of these hallucinations in self-disturbances (Ichstörungen). Developed by the early Heidelberg School, self-disturbances comprise two components: 1. The self experiences its own automatic processing as alien to self in a split-off, "doubled-I." 2. In "I-paralysis," the disruption to automatic processing is now outside the self in omnipotent agents. Self-disturbances (as indicated by visual/multimodal hallucinations) involve impairment in the ability to predict moment-to-moment experiences in the ongoing perception-action cycle. The phenomenological approach to subjective experience of self-disturbances complements efforts to model psychosis using the computational framework of hierarchical predictive coding. We conclude that self-disturbances play an adaptive, compensatory role following the uncoupling of perception and action, and possibly, other low-level perceptual anomalies.