Psychotic disorders are complex, multifactorial conditions influenced by both genetic liability and early environmental adversity. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) derived from genome-wide association studies have shown utility in capturing genetic predisposition, but their biological interpretability remains limited. In this study, we evaluated whether biologically informed pathway-specific polygenic scores (pPGSs) for psychosis, restricted to neurotransmitter-related pathways, could help clarify gene-environment interplay. Using data from 1 192 individuals in the EU-GEI multi-site case-control study, we constructed pPGSs for dopamine, glutamate, GABA, and serotonin systems. We investigated associations between pPGSs and childhood trauma (rGE), their interactions on psychosis risk (GxE), and the influence of the genome-wide psychosis PRS on these relationships. Serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate pPGSs were positively associated with a composite trauma exposure (i.e., abuse and neglect), suggesting shared genetic factors contributing to both psychosis liability and early adversity. Significant negative GxE effects were observed for both dopamine and serotonin pPGSs, indicating that higher trauma exposure diminished the relative influence of genetic liability on psychosis risk. Adjustment for the genome-wide psychosis PRS attenuated most effects, but serotonergic and dopaminergic associations remained robust, supporting pathway-specific contributions beyond general polygenic risk. These findings provide proof-of-concept for the utility of pPGSs in psychiatric research, suggesting both genetic contributions to trauma exposure and GxE effects on psychosis risk. Further research incorporating epigenetic data and longitudinal designs may enhance mechanistic insight and translational potential.

INTRODUCTION:People with psychosis have high rates of post-traumatic stress-disorder (PTSD). The STAR (Study of Trauma And Recovery) randomised controlled trial found that a Trauma-Focused therapy integrated with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychosis (TF-CBTp) added to Treatment-As-Usual (TAU) reduced PTSD symptoms in people with psychosis compared to TAU only. We hypothesized that TF-CBTp would also reduce PTSD symptoms in daily life, using Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM), which would be associated with improvements on a clinical measure of PTSD. METHODS:Participants were adults with PTSD and schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses, a subsample of the STAR trial (N=153; TF-CBTp+TAU=73, TAU=80). Participants completed ESM assessments of intrusive memories, hyperarousal, dissociation, avoidance and negative trauma-related cognitions through a smartphone app multiple times daily over six days, at baseline and 9-months post-randomisation (end-of-therapy). RESULTS:No between-group differences were found in ESM measures of momentary PTSD symptoms at 9-months. Significant timepoint×therapy interactions indicated greater decrease over time in hyperarousal, negative cognitions, and avoidance, and in variability of intrusive memories, in TF-CBTp+TAU compared to TAU. ESM measures at 9-months were significantly associated with improvements on the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5. CONCLUSION:While findings are tentatively in favour of TF-CBTp, the robust reductions in PTSD symptoms found in the STAR trial using retrospective outcome measures were not fully replicated with ESM, suggesting these methodologies may be capturing different features of symptom expression and processes of therapeutic change. Including both approaches in future research could provide a fuller picture of therapy effects on 'in-the-moment' versus reflective reports of experiences.

Childhood maltreatment and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) are common among people with psychosis. Traumatic life experiences may contribute to the neural substrates of psychosis. Affective pathways to psychosis outline the role of post-traumatic sequelae, but no studies have explored the neurobiological underpinnings of cPTSD in this population. We compared two groups meeting criteria for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, with (n = 58) and without (n = 50) comorbid cPTSD. Region of interest (ROI) analysis was used to assess structural differences in ROIs identified by meta-analyses as overlapping between PTSD and psychosis. The cPTSD group showed enlarged limbic regions, including the bilateral anterior insula and left parahippocampus, and smaller prefrontal regions, including the left medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). In the right mOFC, specific voxel volumes were larger, and others smaller, in the cPTSD group. All differences, aside from hippocampal volume, survived whole-brain analysis corrected for multiple comparisons. Post-hoc analyses indicated trends suggesting bilateral insula and mOFC volume correlated positively, whereas parahippocampal volume correlated negatively, with cPTSD symptom severity. To conclude, in people with comorbid cPTSD and psychosis, post-traumatic sequelae may be underpinned by anatomical differences in regions implicated in emotion regulation, especially the regulation of fear, supporting the neural characterisation of affective psychosis pathways.

BACKGROUND:Childhood trauma is a well-known environmental risk factor for psychiatric disorders, yet genetic influences may also shape exposure to adversity via gene-environment correlation (rGE). METHODS:We examined rGE between polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for psychiatric and behavioral traits and trauma subtypes across development in 2 large cohorts: the EU-GEI (European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions) case-control study (n = 1191) and the ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) birth cohort (N = 8141). Trauma was assessed retrospectively in EU-GEI and both prospectively and retrospectively in ALSPAC. Multinomial logistic regressions tested associations between PRSs and timing of exposure (early: 0-11 years vs. late: 12-17 years) to 5 trauma types (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, and household discord). RESULTS:In EU-GEI, 20 PRS-trauma associations survived false discovery rate correction. The posttraumatic stress disorder PRS showed strong associations with early emotional abuse (odds ratio [OR] = 3.37), sexual abuse (OR = 3.08), physical abuse (OR = 2.90), and bullying (OR = 2.19). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) PRS was linked to early sexual abuse (OR = 1.49), emotional abuse (OR = 1.33), household discord (OR = 1.27), and bullying (OR = 1.24). Schizophrenia (SCZ) PRS was associated with early emotional abuse (OR = 1.90) and late bullying (OR = 1.46). In ALSPAC, 20 PRS-trauma associations were replicated, including ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, SCZ, and cannabis use disorder with early traumas. Variance explained was small in both cohorts. Sensitivity analyses restricted to control participants in EU-GEI confirmed results. CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide novel and robust evidence for rGE between psychiatric PRSs and specific trauma exposures, particularly in early development, underscoring the importance of incorporating genetic liability in trauma research.

Hallucination proneness exists on a continuum in the general population; if common mechanisms span health and illness, white-matter features that distinguish patients from controls should also covary with subclinical proneness. In healthy adults (n = 68), we related Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS) sub-scores to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics, fractional anisotropy (FA), mean (MD), axial (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) using region-of-interest analyses of major association pathways and subject-specific arcuate fasciculus (AF) tractography with lateralization indices. Higher general proneness (LSHS-modified) was associated with lower AD in posterior association pathways right ILF (ρ = - 0.32, p = 0.0075), bilateral SLF (left: ρ = -0.32, p = 0.0072; right: ρ = - 0.24, p = 0.0481) and occipital lobe (ρ = -0.26, p = 0.0314), while RD showed no relationship with the visual sub-score. In AF tractography, left AF showed modest negative associations with MD (ρ = -0.25, p = 0.0399) and AD (ρ =-0.27, p = 0.0250), whereas FA, tract volume/length, and lateralization were not significantly related to LSHS scores; AF lateralization remained leftward on average. These results indicate that subclinical proneness tracks selective microstructural variation (lower AD/MD) in posterior visual-language pathways, whereas canonical AF features widely emphasized in patient studies (microstructure, tract size, leftward asymmetry) did not covary with proneness in health, suggesting those AF abnormalities may index broader psychosis vulnerability rather than the propensity to hallucinate per se.

Background. Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) index early risk for psychotic disorders and are consistently associated with childhood trauma, yet underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. DNA methylation (DNAm) may capture the biological embedding of early adversity, while adolescent exposures such as cannabis use may modify these processes. We examined epigenome-wide associations of childhood trauma and PLEs, tested the moderating role of early cannabis use, and evaluated DNAm as a potential mediator. Methods. We analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK population-based birth cohort. Childhood trauma was assessed prospectively and retrospectively. Epigenome-wide DNAm was measured in peripheral blood at ~17 years using the Illumina 450K array, and PLEs were assessed at 18 using a structured interview. Epigenome-wide association studies were conducted for trauma-DNAm and DNAm-PLEs associations in the final sample (n = 1,457), adjusting for demographic, biological, and technical covariates. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified using DMRff, followed by functional enrichment analyses. Cannabis use at 15.5 was modelled as a moderator with multiple imputation for missing data. Mediation was tested using the Divide-Aggregate Composite-null Test (DACT). Results. Childhood trauma was associated with widespread DNAm differences, primarily at the regional level, with enrichment in pathways related to cellular stress responses. In contrast, DNAm associated with PLEs was more limited and implicated loci involved in epigenetic regulatory processes. These signatures were largely distinct, and there was no evidence supporting mediation after multiple testing correction. Incorporating cannabis use altered the pattern and extent of DNAm associations, with stronger and more significant signals observed at both CpG and regional levels, although these did not translate into evidence of mediation. Conclusion. Childhood trauma and PLEs show distinct DNAm signatures in adolescence, with trauma-related DNAm reflecting broad stress-related processes and PLE-associated DNAm implicating regulatory mechanisms. We found little evidence that DNAm mediates the trauma-PLE association. Instead, adolescent exposures, particularly cannabis use, may distinctly influence trauma-related epigenetic variation with limited detectable downstream effects on PLEs. These findings support a context-dependent model of epigenetic risk and highlight the need for larger longitudinal studies to clarify causal pathways linking early adversity to psychosis. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee and Local Research Ethics Committees gave ethical approval for this work. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) obtained informed consent from participants in accordance with committee recommendations, and consent for biological samples was collected according to the Human Tissue Act (2004). Data used in this study were obtained through the ALSPAC managed access process. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes The informed consent obtained from ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) participants does not allow the data to be made available through any third party maintained public repository. Supporting data are available from ALSPAC on request under the approved proposal number, B4002 Full instructions for applying for data access can be found here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/access/. The ALSPAC study website contains details of all available data (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/). Medical Research Council, MR/T007818/1

OBJECTIVE:Estimating the current association between childhood adversity and the risk of psychosis is crucial for prevention and intervention. We provided an updated synthesis of evidence from the past four decades, expanded the available data by investigating a broad array of adversity subtypes, and explored sex differences and the age of psychosis onset as relevant factors. METHODS:We searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, WANFANG, and CNKI, for case-control, cross-sectional and cohort studies on the association between adversity and psychotic symptoms/illness. Multi-level meta-analysis, prediction intervals calculation, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. RESULTS:The main analysis included 183 study samples (N=349,265), with 119 case-control studies (15,186 cases; 14,879 controls), 51 cross-sectional studies (N=299,659), and 13 cohort studies (N=19,541). Significant associations between adversity and psychosis were observed across all study designs, yielding an overall odds ratio of 2.80 (95% CI=2.18, 3.60). Secondary analyses revealed that exposure to each adversity subtype increased the odds of psychosis, with the highest odds ratio (3.54 [95% CI=3.04, 4.13]) for emotional abuse, and the lowest odds ratio of (1.58 [95% CI=1.48, 1.68]) for parental antipathy. No statistically significant sex differences were observed, although the odds ratio for sexual abuse was higher for women. Onset of psychosis was earlier in adversity-exposed individuals (mean difference=-0.79 years, 95% CI=-1.47 to -0.12). CONCLUSIONS:This is the largest meta-analysis to date on the association between childhood adversity and psychosis. The results have broad clinical implications, as they highlight the need for selective prevention of exposure to early adversities and the implementation of trauma-informed therapies in the treatment of psychosis.

BackgroundInformation about the self and others is organized in cognitive-affective structures that influence and guide interpersonal behavior. These structures are referred to as relational schemas and are thought to be influenced by early interpersonal experiences with significant others leading to secure or insecure attachment patterns as adults. When insecure, these patterns appear to contribute to paranoid interpretations about the intentions of others by indirect pathways such as negative self-esteem and a bias toward untrustworthiness. Experimental studies employing classical conditioning (CC) interventions have been successful in manipulating these schemas, finding significant effects on various psychological outcomes such as attachment styles, implicit self-esteem, and paranoid beliefs. However, no study to date has explored these effects on trustworthiness judgments.ObjectiveThis study aims to replicate the findings from previous experiments and also testing the effect of manipulating relational schemas on trustworthiness evaluations.MethodsA convenience online sample of 266 participants completed a series of tasks and questionnaires measuring attachment styles, explicit and implicit self-esteem, paranoia, and trustworthiness evaluations before and after a brief CC intervention, which involved being randomly allocated to three conditions. In each of these conditions, information about the self was always paired with either positive face stimuli (proximity-seeking condition), negative face stimuli (self-threat condition), or neutral face stimuli (control condition).ResultsThis study failed to replicate findings as previously reported in published experiments (i.e., self-esteem, paranoia), only finding a significant effect on attachment styles on the proximity-seeking CC condition. Moreover, no effect was found regarding trustworthiness judgments.DiscussionLimitations such as the online nature of the study and methodological aspects are discussed.

Background Symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) may play a role in the maintenance of psychotic symptoms. Network analyses have shown interrelationships between post-traumatic sequelae and psychosis, but the temporal dynamics of these relationships in people with psychosis and a history of trauma remain unclear. We aimed to explore, using network analysis, the temporal order of relationships between symptoms of cPTSD (i.e. core PTSD and disturbances of self-organization [DSOs]) and psychosis in the flow of daily life. Methods Participants with psychosis and comorbid PTSD ( N = 153) completed an experience-sampling study involving multiple daily assessments of psychosis (paranoia, voices, and visions), core PTSD (trauma-related intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal), and DSOs (emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, negative self-concept) over six consecutive days. Multilevel vector autoregressive modeling was used to estimate three complementary networks representing different timescales. Results Our between-subjects network suggested that, on average over the testing period, most cPTSD symptoms related to at least one positive psychotic symptom. Many average relationships persist in the contemporaneous network, indicating symptoms of cPTSD and psychosis co-occur, especially paranoia with hyperarousal and negative self-concept. The temporal network suggested that paranoia reciprocally predicted, and was predicted by, hyperarousal, negative self-concept, and emotional dysregulation from moment to moment. cPTSD did not directly relate to voices in the temporal network. Conclusions cPTSD and positive psychosis symptoms mutually maintain each other in trauma-exposed people with psychosis via the maintenance of current threat, consistent with cognitive models of PTSD. Current threat, therefore, represents a valuable treatment target in phased-based trauma-focused psychosis interventions.

BACKGROUND:Altered functional connectivity in several functional networks has been found in people with psychosis, especially in the default mode (DMN), salience (SAL) and central executive (CEN) networks. Functional connectivity in people with psychosis is influenced by traumatic life experiences. Trauma histories typical of people with psychosis are associated with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD), but no studies have explored whether post-traumatic sequelae contribute to functional dysconnectivity in people with psychosis. METHODS:Using resting-state fMRI, we compared two groups meeting diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia spectrum disorders (N = 106); one group additionally met ICD-11 criteria for comorbid cPTSD, whereas the other did not. We assessed between-group differences in functional connectivity between 15 pre-defined regions of the DMN, SAL and CEN. Post-hoc correlations were used to test whether intra- and/or inter-network connectivity related to cPTSD symptom severity in the comorbid cPTSD group. RESULTS:The comorbid cPTSD group demonstrated significantly lower functional connectivity within the DMN, SAL and CEN, as well as increased negative connectivity between the SAL and CEN. The control group showed significantly decreased connectivity of the DMN with the SAL and CEN. PTSD symptoms correlated positively with intra-SAL connectivity and DMN-SAL dysconnectivity, whereas DSOs correlated positively with intra-SAL dysconnectivity and reduced DMN-CEN connectivity. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings broadly align with the tripartite network model explaining psychopathology in terms of DMN, SAL and CEN dysconnectivity. Intra-network dysconnectivity in subgroups of people with psychosis may relate to post-traumatic sequelae, whereas inter-network dysconnectivity may be more central in trauma-unrelated psychoses.

Purpose The adverse impact of moral injury on health care workers is well documented, for example during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, currently available measures are unsuitable for assessing moral injury in health care workers living in secular societies such as the United Kingdom. The current study introduces and validates the Health care-Moral Injury Scale (HMIS).Method The 10-item HMIS was designed during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess moral injury in health care workers. Between September and October 2020, 858 health care workers completed the scale and other measures. A factor structure was identified by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and correlations were used to test the convergent (burnout, hope, mistrust) and divergent (loneliness) validity of the HMIS. Regression analyses tested the criterion-related validity of the HMIS against measures of depression, anxiety and PTSD.Results and Conclusions The HMIS was found to be a unidimensional scale comprised of three conceptual components. There was evidence of good convergent validity, with a medium-sized correlation between the total moral injury score and burnout. However, correlations were weaker for loss of hope and loss of trust. Moral injury was not significantly associated with loneliness when controlling for mental health difficulties, indicating good divergent validity. Moral injury scores predicted worse severity of depression, anxiety and PTSD, supporting criterion-related validity. Findings suggest that the HMIS is a valid scale that can be used by researchers to assess moral injury specifically in a health care context.

Many socially consequential beliefs, notably political and religious ideologies, consist not of single propositions in isolation from others but as systems of many propositions. Philip Converse, one of the most influential political scientists of the twentieth century, proposed that such systems can be understood as networks of propositions and predicted that they would be highly intercorrelated in those with strong ideological commitments but less so in people who are less ideological. We used recent advances in network psychometrics to test this account in relation to the political beliefs of a representative sample of 2,058 UK adults, who rated themselves on the left-right dimension and then reported their attitudes toward 18 policy issues. We divided participants into equally-sized groups of left-wing, centrist and right-wing participants and found that, as Converse had predicted, the networks of those at either end of the left-right continuum were similar in structure, being significantly more interconnected than the networks of those who identified themselves as centrists, even though the actual beliefs were (for the most part) polar opposites. This finding, which was robust to sensitivity checks, aligns with previous research which has shown that people at the political extremes, compared to those in the centre, are more certain about their beliefs and less likely to change them over time. In each ideological group we also identified the same three communities of beliefs which mapped onto classic accounts of authoritarian attitudes, altruism and cooperativeness, and personal liberty. Attitudes towards gay rights had the highest predictability index in all three networks and was the most central node in the right and centre networks, suggesting that these attitudes play a largely unrecognised but important role in ideological positioning. Our analytical approach has implications for not only political beliefs but all organized belief systems.

Despite empirical progress, theoretical understanding of mood instability remains stagnant. A major reason for this stagnation concerns the field's reliance on narrative theories that cannot integrate disparate quantitative perspectives on mood dynamics. Here, we address the limitations of narrative theorizing by developing a formal theory of mood instability. Our theory is predicated on the computational process of "evaluation": the process of appraising the value of stimuli, which has long been theorized to be central to mood dynamics. Building on reinforcement-learning models of evaluation, we propose a dynamic framework, which we use to simulate various evaluative situations. Our simulations can generate and thereby formally integrate three well-known types of mood instability: emotional rigidity/inertia, transience/instability, and sensitivity/reactivity. We discuss how this formal perspective could enhance the theory, clinical utility, and measurement of mood instability.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13765.].

Paranoia, often associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, also exists on a continuum with ordinary mistrust and is prevalent in non-clinical populations. Recent research suggests that Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), a dispositional trait reflecting a negative response to uncertainty, may play a significant role in predicting paranoia. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between IU and paranoia, using data from the Covid-19 Psychological Research Consortium Study (C19PRC). 2025 participants representative of the UK population were recruited and assessed across three waves over nine months. Path analysis revealed that IU consistently predicted paranoia over time, even after controlling for negative affective traits such as neuroticism, and common co-occurring symptoms such as anxiety, and depression. Partial correlation analyses revealed stronger relationships between paranoia and Inhibitory IU than Prospective IU. These findings suggest that IU is a stable and independent predictor of paranoia. This study extends previous cross-sectional research by providing longitudinal evidence of associations between IU and paranoia and suggests that IU may represent a promising target for future research on intervention strategies.

Research has demonstrated the ability to identify and treat individuals at high risk of developing psychosis. It is possible to use a similar strategy to identify people who have an emergent risk of bipolar disorder (BD). Interventions during the early phase may improve outcomes and reduce risk of transition. Criteria have been established to identify individuals considered to be at high risk for developing BD, also known as Bipolar At Risk (BAR). Offering a psychological intervention may provide the possibility of prevention. Evaluating efficacy and the mechanisms by which this treatment works is now required. A multicentre, rater-masked randomised controlled trial with two parallel arms will compare cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for young people meeting BAR criteria (CBTBAR) + Treatment as Usual (TAU) vs. TAU alone. Participants will be recruited from five National Health Service (NHS) sites in the UK. Outcome and mediational variables will be collected at baseline, 17-weeks (in treatment), 27-weeks (post-CBTBAR /TAU), and 52-weeks. Qualitative work will examine the perceived mechanisms of change and implementation of CBTBAR in the NHS. Our efficacy hypotheses are CBTBAR + TAU (compared to TAU alone) will lead to improvement in mood swings, a reduction in the likelihood of transition to BD, and improvements to functioning and quality of life. Our mechanistic hypothesis is CBTBAR + TAU causes improvement in mood swings due to the reduction of extreme positive and negative appraisals of internal states which in turn improves subsequent behaviours used to control mood and then internal states. Our trial will explore the perceived mechanism of change via this novel intervention (CBTBAR) and if the approach can be implemented within current services in the UK. The trial protocol is registered with (ISRCTN13363197, registered on 25th January 2023). Recruitment started in February 2023 and is ongoing.

This is the first study to attempt replication of Banas et al (2023) on inoculation messages. The original experiment demonstrated that inoculation messages could stimulate resistance to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. However, a gap was identified in this study where exposing participants with inoculation scripts did not stimulate motivational threat, the key component that drives the attitude to defend specific beliefs. In this replication study, we also included conspiracy mentality as the moderator variable that might influence the strength of the association between inoculation scripts and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Findings from this study shows that logic-based and fact-based inoculation scripts were perceived differently by participants. Logic-based scripts were perceived as the script that exposed more evidence (fact) compared to fact-based and baseline scripts. Contrary to the original findings, the study failed to replicate the effect of inoculation treatments on anti-vaccine conspiracy attitudes. Instead, prior attitudes on anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, involvement and conspiracy mentality were shown as the significant predictors.

Hallucinations are often associated with alterations in brain activation, particularly in language-related and sensory processing areas. Existing models suggest different frameworks for understanding the relationship between brain activation and hallucination proneness, yet practical evidence supporting these models remains limited. This study investigates the neural correlates of hallucination proneness in healthy individuals through functional MRI (fMRI) tasks focusing on both auditory and visual processing, including voice and text comprehension, face recognition, and audio-visual stimuli. Participants, primarily university students, completed Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale-Modified (LSHS-M) measures, including auditory (LSHS-A) and visual (LSHS-V) subscales, while undergoing fMRI scans. Correlations were examined between hallucination proneness scores and brain activation in task-relevant and task-irrelevant regions. Although no significant correlations were found between hallucination scores and activation in task-relevant areas, positive correlations emerged in language-related regions during visual tasks, suggesting increased engagement in task-irrelevant areas. These results point to an inhibition deficit in individuals with higher hallucination proneness, supporting theories of reduced cognitive control. Furthermore, lateralization indices showed no significant correlation with hallucination scores, challenging assumptions about the continuum hypothesis in non-clinical populations. Taken together, these findings highlight the complexity of the neural mechanisms underlying hallucination proneness. While the study provides partial support for inhibition-based theories, the largely null results highlight the need for sensitive tasks, robust statistical controls, and broader populations to fully elucidate the neurobiological basis of hallucination proneness.