It has been documented that individuals who hear auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) exhibit diminished capabilities in processing external speech. While functional neuroimaging studies have attempted to characterise the cortical regions and networks facilitating these deficits in a bid to understand AVH, considerable methodological heterogeneity has prevented a consensus being reached. The current systematic review investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of external speech processing deficits in voice-hearers in 38 studies published between January 1990 to June 2020. AVH-specific deviations in the activity and lateralisation of the temporal auditory regions were apparent when processing speech sounds, words and sentences. During active or affective listening tasks, functional connectivity changes arose within the language, limbic and default mode networks. However, poor study quality and lack of replicable results plague the field. A detailed list of recommendations has been provided to improve the quality of future research on this topic.

据记载，听到幻听 (AVH) 的人在处理外部语音方面表现出减弱的能力。虽然功能性神经影像学研究试图描述促进这些缺陷的皮质区域和网络以了解 AVH，但相当大的方法异质性阻碍了达成共识。目前的系统评价在 1990 年 1 月至 2020 年 6 月期间发表的 38 项研究中调查了语音听者外部语音处理缺陷的神经生物学基础。在处理语音、单词时，时间听觉区域的活动和偏侧化的 AVH 特异性偏差很明显和句子。在主动或情感聆听任务期间，语言内出现功能连接变化，边缘和默认模式网络。然而，糟糕的研究质量和缺乏可复制的结果困扰着该领域。已经提供了一份详细的建议清单，以提高关于该主题的未来研究的质量。