On the distinction between involuntary musical imagery, musical hallucinosis, and musical hallucinations.

Abstract

Musical imagery can occur in at least five different conditions: (1) voluntary musical imagery: participants are asked to imagine a tune; (2) involuntary musical imagery (a.k.a. as “earworms”): music comes to mind without deliberate attempt; (3) permanent involuntary musical imagery: long-term imagery, “earworms” that become chronic and persist; (4) musical hallucinosis: a disorder associated with musical hallucinations among individuals with organic impairments such as hearing loss; and (5) musical hallucinations: music is “simply there” as a symptom of various (mental) disorders. This article is an attempt at a qualitative distinction between these imagery conditions based on a continuum of how real versus how imagery-like the percept of music is. We propose that these behavioral specifications find their neural correlate in the activation of the primary auditory cortex. The underlying etiology and (possible) pathological condition might not be the most favorable classifier of the brain activity on this level. The model suggested is based on an existing review of the literature, including metastudies and a number of single-case studies. In our view, the foremost duty in handling individuals affected by long-term imagery is to provide a proper and differentiated diagnosis, to overcome their biggest concern that they might be “turning mad.” The cases reported suggest that the conditions and symptoms are stable and not progressive, which might be of some relief. A research strategy is suggested to investigate the validity of the model and to test the hypothesis.

Involuntary musical imagery as a component of ordinary music cognition: A review of empirical evidence

“…Studies of INMI phenomenology describe the characteristics and subjective experience of INMI. These descriptions have been predominantly quantitative and aggregated, with only a few exceptions describing individual experiences (Brown, 2006 ; Hemming & Merrill, 2015 ; Williamson & Jilka, 2014 ).…”

“…Unfortunately, the direct detection of the INMI experience-for instance, from brain or motor system activation-has not yet been demonstrated as feasible, even though certain aspects of musical imagery have been reliably observed in brain imaging (Kraemer, Macrae, Green, & Kelley, 2005). Given the findings of voluntary musical imagery research (Halpern & Zatorre, 1999;Halpern, Zatorre, Bouffard, & Johnson, 2004), it is predicted that INMI may reveal similar activations in auditory and frontal cortices to voluntary musical imagery (see Hemming & Merrill, 2015), as well as patterns previously witnessed in involuntary memory studies (Hall, Gjedde, & Kupers, 2008). In addition, recent work has shown that activity in laryngeal muscles recorded using surface electromyography may be an objective indicator of voluntary musical imagery (Pruitt, Halpern, & Pfordresher, 2019), suggesting that such methods may be promising for INMI research as well.…”

“…For instance, the psychiatric literature documents the phenomenon of musical hallucinations (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; Berrios, 1990 ; Evers & Ellger, 2004 ; Hermesh et al, 2004 ), which can be distinguished from musical obsessions (Taylor et al, 2014 ). Beyond these well-established disorders, there are phenomena such pseudohallucinations (van der Zwaard & Polak, 2001 ), musical hallucinosis (Griffiths, Jackson, Spillane, Friston, & Frackowiak, 1997 ), musical palinacousis (Di Dio, Fields, & Rowan, 2007 ), and auditory Charles Bonnet syndrome (Hori, Terao, & Nakamura, 2001 ), which all share some features with INMI (for a review, see Hemming & Merrill, 2015 ; Williams, 2015 ).…”

Musical Hallucinations in Chronic Pain: The Anterior Cingulate Cortex Regulates Internally Generated Percepts

“…Additionally, the boundary between voluntary and involuntary musical imagery (INMI), earworms, and musical hallucinations (MH) is often blurred ( 48 ). Hemming, for example, defines five conditions of musical imagery: voluntary musical imagery, involuntary musical imagery, permanent involuntary musical imagery, musical hallucinosis, and musical hallucinations ( 51 ). While the latter four are involuntary, only MH are described by patients as attributed to an external source ( 47 ) and considered pathological.…”

Mental Control in Musical Imagery: A Dual Component Model

“…2Involuntary musical imagery should not be confused with musical hallucinations, which are instances of musical imagery that are due to the presence of neurological or psychiatric disorders (Evers and Ellger, 2004; Hemming and Merrill, 2015). The literature on musical hallucinations are not reviewed here as the emphasis is on non-clinical forms of everyday musical imagery.…”