13/08/2025
A recent study has revealed how the brain tells the difference between imagination and reality, and why this process can fail in conditions like schizophrenia. The research highlights the fusiform gyrus, a brain region involved in visual processing, as a key player. When we see something in the real world, the fusiform gyrus shows a strong activation signal. In contrast, when we only imagine something, the signal is much weaker. The brain has a "reality threshold," and if a signal from the fusiform gyrus is strong enough to cross it, the brain interprets the experience as real.
In conditions like schizophrenia, this system appears to be faulty. An unusually vivid imagined experience might generate a signal strong enough to be mistaken for reality, or the brain's "reality threshold" might be lowered, causing it to misinterpret internal thoughts as external events. This provides a biological explanation for hallucinations and other symptoms of the condition.
The consequences of this finding on treatment are significant. It paves the way for new therapies, such as targeted cognitive training designed to strengthen the brain's reality-monitoring abilities. It also suggests that future treatments could focus on using techniques like virtual reality to help patients practice distinguishing real from imagined stimuli, or developing new medications that specifically modulate the activity of the brain regions involved in this process. Ultimately, this research offers a path toward addressing the underlying cognitive and neurological deficits of schizophrenia, rather than just treating the symptoms.