Psychophysiological regulatory mechanisms of the perceptual apparatus on involuntary physiological actions were first described and then explained with a psychoanalytic theory. The positive hallucination sensation regulatory mechanism involves the initiation of involuntary motor and secretory actions by hallucinatory sensations. The sensory hyperexcitability regulatory mechanisms involves the increased responsivity of a sensory system to peripheral stimuli and the consequent increased physiological response to such stimuli. The negative hallucinatory regulatory mechanism involves the inhibition of involuntary physiological responses to peripheral stimuli by means of negative hallucinations.

The data presented indicate a continuum of sensory responsivity with negative hallucinations on one end of the scale and positive hallucinations on the other. In between these extremes, different degrees of cathexis or countercathexis of a sensory system's memory traces provide a dynamic, variable threshold for the formation of sensations and consequent physiological activity.