Why can we still talk to ourselves without making a sound?

Answer

Hi Lotte,

Talking consists of several steps. We first have an idea of ​​what we want to say, then we look for the right words, then our brains activate the right codes how to pronounce those words and finally our vocal cords, tongue and mouth move to say those words out loud. When you think about something, you do all of this, except for the last step, making the sound. When you talk to yourself, you mainly need Broca’s area, at the front of your brain (although other cells elsewhere in your brain are also active). The main areas for making movements, such as your tongue, are in the ‘pre- and post-central motor area’ in the middle of your brain (named so because it lies in front of and behind a central groove in your brain).

What is also special when we speak is that our brains check ourselves for speech errors. In this way we can prevent slips of the tongue before we pronounce them, or we can correct ourselves quickly if we hear the mistake out loud. This mainly happens in the auditory temporal region in the middle of our brain.

The answer to your second question is that we stop thinking when we are dead. According to science, when we die we are ‘brain dead’, so our brain cells are no longer active. Thoughts are actually brain cells that switch on and off in different places in our brains, depending on what we are thinking. So they are in our heads until we pronounce them, for example.