2018-10-01_Reader_s_Digest_AUNZ

18 | October• 2018

HEALTH

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCEbetween

talking aloud and the voices in your

head?Notmuch,accordingtoyour

brain. Despite the social taboo,

itisn’tnecessarilyabadthingto

hear voices in your head. In fact,

we hear voices every day when we

readbooks,mentallyplanoutour

schedules and debate over what

we should wear.

Althoughtalkinginourheads

andtalkingoutloudarenoticeably

diferent to us, our brains perceive

them as basically the same action.

“he results of our study indicate

thatourbraindoesnotmakea

fundamental distinction between

thevoiceswehearinourheadand

the voice that comes out of our

mouth,”saysstudyauthorhomas

Whitford,anassociateprofessor

in the School of Psychology at the

University of New South Wales.

How is this possible? W hen we

speak,thebraininstructsthevocal

chords, tongue and lips how to move

toproducethecorrectsounds.Italso

makes a copy of that instruction,

what’s called an ‘eference copy’.

hiscopyletsthebrainpredictwhat

soundsitisabouttohear.Whenour

voicematchesourpredictions,the

brain reduces its sensory response

becauseitalreadyknewwhatwas

going to happen.

“We found that when people

produced inner speech, this

wasassociatedwith

an eference copy, in

just the same way that

overt speech is known

to be associated with an

eference copy,” says Associate

Professor Whitford.

So,asyou’rereadingthisarticleto

yourself,youcan‘hear’itthanksto

the same processes that allow you to

talk out loud.

Voice s I n You r He ad

BY CLAIRE NOWAK

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES