What am I doing talking to myself? We can reflect when a conversation strikes up in our head and sometimes it seems like more than two people are involved, when it’s just you and yourself. And this is not only normal or common, but it characterizes us as a species.
So come on, get rid of your petty prejudices and say it out loud: I can’t stop talking to myself.
If it is true, as several studies have shown, that there are people whose inner voice remains quite quiet, while others are rather talkative, it is generally an exercise in mind related to self-perception, awareness and memory. How exactly does this inner dialogue take place?
For starters, experts believe that what is actually a monologue (because we are the only ones speaking, even if we feel like we are encountering different voices) is a simulation of open speech. In other words, there is not much difference between verbalizing and not verbalizing, reports an article from “LiveScience“.
When we stop talking out loud
It therefore turns out that the brain undergoes similar processes when you think of words and when you speak aloud, explains Hélène Loevenbruck, senior researcher in neurolinguistics and head of the language team at the CNRS psychology and neurocognition laboratory. .
This means that the brain regions activated during internal speech turn out to be quite similar to those activated during overt or real speech. These regions include the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere and the parietal lobe, for example, which help to process external stimuli.
So during childhood we behave like sponges, constantly absorbing new information from all angles. I’m sure you’ve heard this expression more than once. According to Loevenbruck, children who play alone often talk out loud with toys (which is also nothing new). But from 5 to 7 years old, this verbalization turns inward.
The adult game
The way we have constructed the perimeter of social language leads us to repress these daily gestures when we are young. Because talking to oneself is frowned upon, an act loaded with considerations about the ancient idea of madness which still conditions us.
But deep down, our brains laugh at any bias, and even if it’s hidden, it’s looking for ways to keep engaging in conversations of all kinds. And what is paradoxical is that it becomes a kind of adult game: during this internal discussion, you play two roles: yourself and the person with whom you are talking.
When you play yourself, the auditory centers on the left side of your brain are activated, Loevenbruck points out. On the other hand, when you change roles internally to play the person with whom you are arguing, “there is a kind of displacement of the activation of the cerebral region towards the right hemisphere”, in equivalent areas such as the lobe parietal and frontal lobe.
The challenge of non-deliberate monologues
Seeing the situation you imagine from another point of view than your own, even if it is a point of view that you imagine yourself in your head, modifies the regions of the brain that are involved in the process.
Previous studies have already shown that the brain exhibits similar activity with internal speech as with verbal speech through MRI observations. So the next step is to get closer to what happens in these fascinating organs when we let our minds wander.
As the researcher explains, not all interior monologues are deliberate. Sometimes words or phrases come to mind without being provoked. Either way, listen to them.
This is one of the questions that everyone asks, but that nobody transmits to others because it refers to our feeling of shame: what am I doing talking to myself? We may find ourselves thinking when a conversation is going on in our head and sometimes it seems like more than two people are involved, when it’s just you and yourself. And that’s not just normal, or common, but it characterizes us as a species. So come on, get rid of your absurd prejudices and say it out loud: I can’t stop talking to myself.
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