Your 'inner voice' is an important companion that many people do not have

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live without an inner voice? For most people, the concept of an inner monologue is a fundamental aspect of their everyday experience.

However, recent research has revealed that not everyone shares this internal dialogue. In fact, some individuals navigate life without the constant presence of verbal thoughts.

Discovery of anendophasia

Postdoc and linguist Johanne Nedergård from the University of Copenhagen, along with her colleague Gary Lupyan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have shed light on this fascinating phenomenon, which they have termed “anendophasia.”

Their study, titled “Not everybody has an inner voice: Behavioural consequences of anendophasia,” was recently published in the scientific journal Psychological Science.

According to Nedergård, people with anendophasia describe their experience as time-consuming and challenging, as they must actively translate their thoughts into words.

“Some say that they think in pictures and then translate the pictures into words when they need to say something,” Nedergård explained.

“Others describe their brain as a well-functioning computer that just does not process thoughts verbally, and that the connection to loudspeaker and microphone is different from other people’s. And those who say that there is something verbal going on inside their heads will typically describe it as words without sound,” she continued.

Navigating life without an inner voice

Nedergård and Lupyan conducted a series of experiments to investigate whether the absence of an inner voice affects problem-solving abilities, particularly in verbal memory tasks.

In one experiment, participants were asked to remember words in a specific order, with the words being similar either phonetically or in spelling, such as “bought,” “caught,” “taut,” and “wart.”

“It is a task that will be difficult for everyone, but our hypothesis was that it might be even more difficult if you did not have an inner voice because you have to repeat the words to yourself inside your head in order to remember them,” Nedergård explains.

“And this hypothesis turned out to be true: The participants without an inner voice were significantly worse at remembering the words. The same applied to an assignment in which the participants had to determine whether a pair of pictures contained words that rhyme, e.g. pictures of a sock and a clock. Here, too, it is crucial to be able to repeat the words in order to compare their sounds and thus determine whether they rhyme,” she noted.

However, in two other experiments testing the role of the inner voice in task switching and distinguishing between similar figures, the researchers found no significant differences between the two groups, despite previous studies indicating that language and the inner voice play a role in these types of tasks.

Adapting to life with anendophasia

Nedergård suggests that individuals without an inner voice may have developed alternative strategies to compensate for the absence of verbal thoughts.

“Maybe people who don’t have an inner voice have just learned to use other strategies. For example, some said that they tapped with their index finger when performing one type of task and with their middle finger when it was another type of task,” she notes.

While the differences in verbal memory identified in the study may not be noticeable in everyday conversations, the implications of anendophasia in certain areas, such as therapy, remain uncertain.

Nedergård points out that in cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, identifying and changing adverse thought patterns is crucial, and having an inner voice may play a significant role in this process.

Uncovering the quiet inner world of anendophasia

As research into anendophasia is still in its early stages, many questions remain unanswered. Nedergård expresses her desire to continue investigating whether other language areas are affected by the absence of an inner voice.

“The experiments in which we found differences between the groups were about sound and being able to hear the words for themselves. I would like to study whether it is because they just do not experience the sound aspect of language, or whether they do not think at all in a linguistic format like most other people,” she concludes.

In summary, the discovery of anendophasia challenges our understanding of the human mind and highlights the diversity of inner experiences.

As researchers continue to explore this fascinating phenomenon, we may uncover valuable insights into the complex relationship between language, thought, and behavior.

By focusing on the silent minority, Johanne Nedergård and her colleagues have opened the door to a new area of research that promises to deepen our understanding of the human experience and the remarkable adaptability of the mind.

The full study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

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