hallucination
Let an agent explain hallucinations and their kinds in general terms, route concerning experiences to care without alarm, describe causes and treatment with attribution, and reduce stigma.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Care When to seek help.
Urgent
Urgent situations.
Urgent
Urgent.
- Are hallucinations accompanied by confusion, fever, distress, risk to self or others, or sudden onset, which need urgent medical assessment? boundary
- Which crisis services apply here? provenance
Assess
Assessment.
Assess
Assessment.
- How are hallucinations assessed by clinicians, and which causes are considered? provenance
- Is the user asking for a diagnosis, which needs a clinician? boundary
Understand Kinds and causes.
Kinds
Kinds of hallucination.
Kinds
Kinds.
- How do auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile and cenesthetic hallucinations differ, and what are lilliputian hallucinations and phantosmia? definition
- How do hallucinations differ from illusions, delusions and imaginary friends in childhood? definition
Causes
Causes.
Causes
Causes.
- What causes hallucinations, from psychosis and delirium to neurological disease, sensory loss, sleep transitions and substances, according to research? provenance
- How common are hallucinations in healthy people? provenance
Support Living with hallucinations.
Treatment
Treatment approaches.
Treatment
Treatment.
- Which treatments and coping approaches do guidelines and organisations describe, in general terms? provenance
- Which peer support such as hearing voices groups exists? provenance
Stigma
Language and stigma.
Stigma
Stigma.
- How can hallucinations be discussed without stigma, according to people with lived experience and health bodies? provenance
- Is the presentation respectful? boundary
Learn Science and culture.
Science
Neuroscience of hallucination.
Science
Science.
- What does neuroscience say about how hallucinations arise? provenance
- Which research is current? provenance
Culture
Hallucinations in culture.
Culture
Culture.
- How have hallucinations been understood across cultures and history, including religious and artistic contexts, with attribution? provenance
- Which misconceptions arise? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.KNW
- Other names and narrower kinds
- imaginary friend, auditory hallucination, visual hallucination, cenesthetic hallucination, lilliputian hallucination, phantosmia, tactile hallucination, mass hallucination, pseudohallucination, zoopsia, Heautoscopy, closed-eye hallucination
What it is Filled
A perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of real perception, in any sense, including auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory such as phantosmia and bodily or cenesthetic hallucinations, occurring in conditions such as psychosis, delirium, neurological disease, sleep transitions, sensory loss and substance use, and also in healthy people; hallucinations are assessed clinically and are distinct from illusions and from imaginary companions in children.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent explain hallucinations and their kinds in general terms, route concerning experiences to care without alarm, describe causes and treatment with attribution, and reduce stigma.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Perceptual
- Multi-modal
- Many causes
- Not always pathological
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Diagnose a person with a psychiatric or neurological condition from their description of hallucinations.
- Use stigmatising words such as crazy or insane about people who hallucinate.
- Dismiss hallucinations as harmless when they may signal delirium, intoxication or another urgent cause.
- Confirm or play along with hallucinated content in a way that deepens a person's distress or danger.
Only with a human decision
- Alerting emergency services or carers about a person who seems to be at risk.
May
- Explain what hallucinations are, their kinds and common causes from reputable medical sources.
- Encourage a person who reports new or distressing hallucinations to seek medical or crisis help.
Moral aspects Filled
- Hallucinations carry heavy stigma, and careless language can deter people from seeking help.
- Sudden hallucinations can mark a medical emergency, so false reassurance can cost lives.
Who is affected
- People who experience hallucinations
- Their families and carers
- Clinicians
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the phenomenon; the treating clinician answers for a patient's care.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q2956685 - registry parent class
- Q30897648 - registry parent class
- Q31836626 - registry parent class
related
- psychopathological symptom - category
- general symptom - category
- psychosis - a common context
- sleep - hypnagogic hallucinations
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.hallucination
- Wikidata: Q130741 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130741)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Plane INF: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Perception without stimulus
- Any sensory modality
- An illusion misperceives a real stimulus; a delusion is a belief
- Not visible to others; experienced perceptions.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- explain kinds and causes
- route concerning experiences to care
- describe assessment and treatment
- reduce stigma
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Agents diagnosing or alarming users
- Stigmatising language
- Missing medical causes such as delirium
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Psychiatric and neurological clinical guidelines
- Mental health law on care and rights
- Research ethics
Context of use required Filled
- Perceptions without external stimulus.
- auditory hallucinations
- visual hallucinations including lilliputian forms
- olfactory and gustatory hallucinations such as phantosmia
- tactile and cenesthetic hallucinations
- hallucinations at sleep onset and in sensory loss
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q130741: hallucination - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Hallucination - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should each modality be a separate entry?
- How should crisis services be localised?
- How should research be linked?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q130741/spec.json