Hearing my thoughts. is it hearing?

[Dariusjack88]

so I can hear my thoughts. does the part in the brain associated with sound acknowledge that?

[iNow]

It's a bit more complex than that. While there is activation in the auditory cortex, there is also involvement in the rest of the brain. The extent and location of that activity/involvement depends largely on the nature of the thought / the content of your self-talk. There is usually some emotional involvement, interactions with memory and past experience (even just retrieval of the correct vocabulary), executive function and logic and context placement and basically processes that go far beyond just those parts of our brain responsible for hearing sounds and generation of speech.

[Dariusjack88]

I'm aware of those specifics. I still don't have an answer to my question. Does the brain acknowledge me "hearing myself think" as actual sound.

[CharonY]

Well, considering that you are aware that these are your thoughts rather than the voice from an external source, it appears that your brain acknowledged it. In cases of auditory hallucinations, this distinction does not work properly. The mechanisms of this are (AFAIK) not yet known. Some models suggest that this is due to some efficiency in self-monitoring (see Frith C.D. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Hove: 1992. The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia).

Thus in cases when someone (or his/her brain if you prefer) misattributes self-initiation of inner speech the internal voices may be experienced as external ones.

[Phi for All]

I'm aware of those specifics. I still don't have an answer to my question. Does the brain acknowledge me "hearing myself think" as actual sound.

 

By acknowledge, do you mean the brain mislabeling your thoughts as actual sounds? Because they aren't, so any acknowledgement that they are by the brain must be mis-attributed.

 

Your thoughts are often considered a voice in your head, but nothing about them goes through the auditory system.

 

I've heard sounds I mis-attributed to something else (drape-pull clicking against the wall sounded like high heels walking outside), but I don't think I've ever "heard" something my mind made up that couldn't have gone through the normal auditory process. For instance, does a war veteran, thinking about/ "hearing" gunfire in his mind, ever think it was a real gunshot, and duck for cover? If a student thinks about a bell ringing, does he start to leave class early?

 

Or do we understand these sounds are just our thoughts?

[iNow]

I still don't have an answer to my question.

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