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

That voice is usually called your “inner voice” or “internal monologue”.

It doesn’t look like there is any research that’s found how that works, but there is research on how visual imagination / memory works.

Using brain scans it was found that many of the same places in the brain that are active when you look at an object are also active when you imagine it.

So it seems like your brain is able to trigger its object recognition system manually and create a mental image of that object without needing to see it. We don’t yet know enough about how the brain works too get any more detailed than that.

Your inner voice is probably done by your brain in a similar way.