Sound through the rabbit hole: Sound design based on reports of auditory hallucination

Abstract

As video game developers seek to provide increasing levels of realism and sophistication, there is a need for game characters to be able to exhibit psychological states including 'altered states of consciousness' (ASC) realistically. 'Auditory hallucination' (AH) is a feature of ASC in which an individual may perceive distortions to auditory perception, or hear sounds with no apparent acoustic origin. Appropriate use of game sound may enable realistic representations of these sounds in video games. However to achieve this requires rigorous approaches informed by research. This paper seeks to inform the process of designing sounds based on auditory hallucination, by reporting the outcomes of analysing nearly 2000 experience reports that describe drug-induced intoxication. Many of these reports include descriptions of auditory hallucination. Through analysis of these reports, our research establishes a classification system, which we propose can be used for designing sounds based on auditory hallucination.