Lian X, Song W, Si TM, Lian NZ. Classification of musical hallucinations and the characters along with neural-molecular mechanisms of musical hallucinations associated with psychiatric disorders. World J Psychiatry 2024; 14(9): 1386-1396 [PMID: 39319238 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i9.1386]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Naomi Zheng Lian, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Psychiatry, Hartford HealthCare, St Vincent’s Medical Center, 47 Long Lots Road, Westport, CT 06088, United States. shanxijingzhong@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Systematic Reviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2024; 14(9): 1386-1396 Published online Sep 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i9.1386
Classification of musical hallucinations and the characters along with neural-molecular mechanisms of musical hallucinations associated with psychiatric disorders
Xin Lian, Wei Song, Tian-Mei Si, Naomi Zheng Lian
Xin Lian, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Taiyuan 030032, Shanxi Province, China
Wei Song, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4L8, ON, Canada
Tian-Mei Si, Department of Psychopharmacology, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing 100191, China
Naomi Zheng Lian, Department of Psychiatry, Hartford HealthCare, St Vincent’s Medical Center, Westport, CT 06088, United States
Author contributions: Lian X, Song W, Si TM, and Lian NZ carried out the studies, participated in collecting data, and drafted the manuscript; Lian NZ performed the statistical analysis and participated in its design; Lian X and Lian NZ participated in acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data and draft the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Naomi Zheng Lian, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Psychiatry, Hartford HealthCare, St Vincent’s Medical Center, 47 Long Lots Road, Westport, CT 06088, United States. shanxijingzhong@gmail.com
Received: April 7, 2024 Revised: August 15, 2024 Accepted: August 22, 2024 Published online: September 19, 2024 Processing time: 156 Days and 16 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Musical hallucinations (MH) involve the false perception of music in the absence of external stimuli which links with different etiologies. The pathomechanisms of MH encompass various conditions. The etiological classification of MH is of particular importance and offers valuable insights to understand MH, and further to develop the effective treatment of MH. Over the recent decades, more MH cases have been reported, revealing newly identified medical and psychiatric causes of MH. Functional imaging studies reveal that MH activates a wide array of brain regions. An up-to-date analysis on MH, especially on MH comorbid psychiatric conditions is warranted.
AIM
To propose a new classification of MH; to study the age and gender differences of MH in mental disorders; and neuropathology of MH.
METHODS
Literatures searches were conducted using keywords such as “music hallucination,” “music hallucination and mental illness,” “music hallucination and gender difference,” and “music hallucination and psychiatric disease” in the databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. MH cases were collected and categorized based on their etiologies. The t-test and ANOVA were employed (P < 0.05) to compare the age differences of MH different etiological groups. Function neuroimaging studies of neural networks regulating MH and their possible molecular mechanisms were discussed.
RESULTS
Among the 357 yielded publications, 294 MH cases were collected. The average age of MH cases was 67.9 years, with a predominance of females (66.8% females vs 33.2% males). MH was classified into eight groups based on their etiological mechanisms. Statistical analysis of MH cases indicates varying associations with psychiatric diagnoses.
CONCLUSION
We carried out a more comprehensive review of MH studies. For the first time according to our knowledge, we demonstrated the psychiatric conditions linked and/or associated with MH from statistical, biological and molecular point of view.
Core Tip: There has been a noteworthy increase in musical hallucination (MH) publications over the last several years warranting a more recent and updated analysis of MH. In our study, we engaged in a more comprehensive review of these MH publications and studies. Our study and findings are unique in that we demonstrated the psychiatric conditions linked and/or associated with MH from a statistical perspective. The neurobiological processes associated with psychiatric disorders comorbid with MH were analyzed, categorized and summarized. Our study also found that the recent biological and molecular studies indicate possible mechanisms that cause neuron disruptions in MH.
