What’s the voice on your head that appears when you think called? How does it work, and why does it exist? On the same note, how do you “see” with your imagination?

Question

Imagine you’re reading something, be it a sign, a book, song lyrics, etc. You should have a voice, your voice in most cases, telling you whatever it says on that text.

Or say, you’re overthinking about something and replay scenarios on your mind about that. Maybe you might get crushed in your way to work by a car, or you’ll forget your pants, who knows!

By doing those things you’re painting a clear image and sounds on your head, but how can you see the inside of your brain, if you have no eyes in there? And how can you give a voice to those thoughts, if you’re specifically not talking out loud?

In: Biology

Answer 1

It’s called “Internal monologue” or often “internal dialogue”. It’s believed to be an evolutionary response to help the early man’s mind communicate and discuss in a “resting state”

Fun fact: only around ~50% of population has the IM. And deaf people can have a sign language or imagery IM

If you would be interested in light YA books about the Internal Monologue, I thoroughly enjoyed “Close encounters of the girl kind”