When reading direct speech in the brain, areas of the auditory cortex are activated

For many, it is not difficult to represent someone else's speech mentally - for example, an internal dialogue with someone. However, this phenomenon for a long time almost did not attract the attention of researchers, until a group of scientists from the University of Glasgow (Great Britain) decided to check whether it had any neurophysiology under it.

The results of their work, the authors published in Journal Cognitive Neuroscience. The experiment involved 16 volunteers whose brains were examined using functional MRI, while they read fragments of the text to themselves. As soon as the person reached some kind of quotation, the device recorded activity in the auditory cortex in his brain, namely in those areas that are responsible for voice recognition.

Obviously, the connection of the auditory cortex in reading direct speech causes its brighter effects: it is easier for the brain to imagine hat is being said “from the first person”.

Most likely, the same voice sections of the auditory cortex are also involved in the work of the inner voice — in imaginary dialogues. The prerequisites for such a conclusion in theory existed: the zones responsible for voice recognition were not a secret, and it was known that these areas could be excited by non-sound stimuli — for example, when trying to read lips. There was even a theory that spoke about the ability of people to model language situations "in the mind" through the distribution of auditory and visual information obtained in the past between brain zones. But direct experimental evidence of this has not yet existed.

Based on Glasgow University materials.