Background Perceptions of speech in the absence of an auditory stimulus (auditory verbal
hallucinations) are a cardinal feature of schizophrenia. Functional neuroimaging provides a
powerful means of measuring neural activity during auditory hallucinations, but the results
from previous studies have been inconsistent. This may reflect the acquisition of small
numbers of images in each subject and the confounding effects of patients actively signaling
when hallucinations occur. Methods We examined 6 patients with schizophrenia who were …