One of the great mysteries of the human mind is hidden in the voices that we hear in our brain, that inner monologue that accompanies our thoughts and that, in the case of some people, can be very strange or even not exist, according to researchers in an article from The Guardian newspaper.
That constant presence in our head that reminds us to buy milk, or tells us how heavy our boss can be, is usually heard in most cases in a way similar to how we think our voice is when we speak.
However, to some people it may sound very different.
The inner voice of Claudia, a sailor from Lichfield (England), for example, sounds like a quarreling Italian couple, even though she has never been to Italy and has no relatives or friends there.
The inner voice allows you to correct mistakes before speaking.Getty Images
"I have no idea where this came from," Claudia said.
She describes the couple in her head as flamboyant, burly, and prone to shaking hands, as in the worst stereotypes about Italians.
Every time she has to make a decision, they take it upon herself to discuss it for her.
"They argue with passion either side," said Claudia, "it's very useful because I let them do the work, so I don't get stressed."
The couple, in fact, helped her two years ago to quit her job as a scientist to fulfill her dream
: to make her life at sea.
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John Hopkins, a 59-year-old Londoner, claims instead that he does not have an inner voice. "
There's nothing there," he said, "and I don't think there ever was."
He described his brain as a small island surrounded by an infinite ocean.
"The tiny island is where all conscious things seem to occur, but it is surrounded by this infinite and inaccessible thing," he said.
Hopkins, of course, has thoughts, like all people, but he lacks the inner monologue that accompanies others.
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"When I am alone and relaxed, there are no words," he said, "and there is great pleasure in that."
He assured that an hour can pass without any thought and that, at night, he sleeps like a baby.
Why is this happening?
"It is a very good question," scientist Helene Loevenbruck, from the Laboratory of Psychology at the University of Grenoble Alpes, explained to the aforementioned newspaper.
But "I don't know," he added.
Loevenbruck is one of the few neuroscientists in the world who has studied the inner voice.
Explain that it is created in a network of brain areas such as the inferior parietal lobe, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the superior temporal cortex;
and it is used to simulate what is going to be said and correct it before saying it.
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"The current idea about inner speech is that we do the same thing as in open speech: we predict in our mind what we are going to say, but we don't actually send the motor commands to the speech muscles," Loevenbruck said, "this auditory signal simulated is the little voice we hear in our brain ".
He added that, for the most part, what people hear is called "inner language."
But not everyone hears the same thing.
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“There can be expanded and more condensed forms of inner language,” he says, “people can experience them as abstract representations of language, without sound ...
Some people say that their inner voice is like a radio that is on all day.
Other people have no voice at all, or speak with abstract symbols that do not imply language.
Deaf people, for example, tend to experience the inner voice visually.
"They do not hear the inner voice, but they can produce the inner language by visualizing the signs of the hand or by seeing the movements of the lips," said the expert.
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The explanation for why all this occurs, however, is still unclear and is beyond the current limits of neuroscience, according to Loevenbruck.
