From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk   
      
   On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:17:46 -0400, Janice wrote:   
      
   > In article ,   
   > david@edenroad.demon.co.uk says...   
   >   
   >>Hearing voices is not uncommon, but doesn't mean anything so long as you   
   >>ignore them.  No-one really know why some people hear voices and,   
   >>interestingly they're almost always male voices - the hypothesis is that   
   >>the female voice is too complicated to synthesise.   
   >   
   > Too complicated in what way?  Female voices have less variability in   
   > pitch, tone and character than male voices, at least to my ear.  In any   
   > case I hear both male and female hypnagogic voices, and both male and   
   > female dream voices.  Some sound old, some sound young, their emotional   
   > qualities vary, etc.  No synthesizing difficulties whatsoever.   
      
   "A university research team says it has discovered why most people   
   "hearing voices" in hallucinations say they hear male voices.   
      
   Dr Michael Hunter's research at the University of Sheffield says that   
   male voices are less complex to produce than female.   
      
   As such, when the brain spontaneously produces its own "voices", a   
   male voice is more likely to have been generated.   
      
   Among both men and women, 71% of such "false" voices are male.   
      
   'False perception'   
      
   "Psychiatrists believe that these auditory hallucinations are caused   
   when the brain spontaneously activates, creating a false perception   
   of a voice," says Professor Hunter of the university's psychiatry department.   
      
   "The reason these voices are usually male could be explained by the   
   fact that the female voice is so much more complex that the brain   
   would find it much harder to create a false female voice accurately   
   than a false male voice," he says.   
      
   Such imaginary voices are typically likely to be middle-aged and   
   carry "derogatory" messages.   
      
   The research, published in NeuroImage, shows how the brain interprets   
   information from human voices - and how female and male voices   
   activate different parts of the brain.   
      
   "The female voice is more complex than the male voice, due to   
   differences in the size and shape of the vocal cords and larynx   
   between women and men, and also due to women having greater natural   
   'melody' in their voices.   
      
   "This causes a more complex range of sound frequencies than in a male   
   voice," says Professor Hunter.   
      
   These gender differences in voices trigger responses in different   
   parts of brain - and as the male version is simpler, both men and   
   women who hear voices, are on average more likely to produce a   
   male-sounding voice.   
      
   The research says that "auditory verbal hallucinations" are a symptom   
   of schizophrenia and "occur in 40% to 60% of patients who suffer from   
   the condition".   
   "   
      
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