An EMG study of the lip muscles during covert auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia

Purpose: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are speech perceptions in the absence of a external stimulation. An influential theoretical account of AVHs in schizophrenia claims that a deficit in inner speech monitoring would cause the verbal thoughts of the patient to be perceived as external voices. The account is based on a predictive control model, in which verbal self-monitoring is implemented. The aim of this study was to examine lip muscle activity during AVHs in schizophrenia patients, in order to check whether inner speech occurred. Methods: Lip muscle activity was recorded during covert AVHs (without articulation) and rest. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used on eleven schizophrenia patients. Results: Our results show an increase in EMG activity in the orbicularis oris inferior muscle, during covert AVHs relative to rest. This increase is not due to general muscular tension since there was no increase of muscular activity in the forearm muscle. Conclusion: This evidence that AVHs might be self-generated inner speech is discussed in the framework of a predictive control model. Further work is needed to better describe how the inner speech monitoring dysfunction occurs and how inner speech is controlled and monitored. This will help better understanding how AVHs occur

The Linguistic Determination of Conscious Thought Contents

In this paper we address the question of what determines the content of our conscious episodes of thinking, considering recent claims that phenomenal character individuates thought contents. We present one prominent way for defenders of phenomenal intentionality to develop that view and then examine ‘sensory inner speech views’, which provide an alternative way of accounting for thought-content determinacy. We argue that such views fare well with inner speech thinking but have problems accounting for unsymbolized thinking. Within this dialectic, we present an account of the nature of unsymbolized thinking that accords with and can be seen as a continuation of the activity of inner speech, while offering a way of explaining thought-content determinacy in terms of linguistic structures and representation

From Introspection to Essence: The Auditory Nature of Inner Speech

To some it is a shallow platitude that inner speech always has an auditory-phonological component. To others, it is an empirical hypothesis with accumulating support. To yet others it is a false dogma. In this chapter, I defend the claim that inner speech always has an auditory-phonological component, confining the claim to adults with ordinary speech and hearing. It is one thing, I emphasize, to assert that inner speech often, or even typically, has an auditory-phonological component—quite another to propose that it always does. When forced to argue for the stronger point, we stand to make a number of interesting discoveries about inner speech itself, and about our means for discriminating it from other psycholinguistic phenomena. Establishing the stronger conclusion also provides new leverage on debates concerning how we should conceive of, diagnose, and explain auditory verbal hallucinations and “inserted thoughts” in schizophrenia

Inner Speech and Metacognition: a defense of the commitment-based approach

A widespread view in philosophy claims that inner speech is closely tied to human metacognitive capacities. This so-called format view of inner speech considers that talking to oneself allows humans to gain access to their own mental states by forming metarepresentation states through the rehearsal of inner utterances (section 2). The aim of this paper is to present two problems to this view (section 3) and offer an alternative view to the connection between inner speech and metacognition (section 4). According to this alternative, inner speech (meta)cognitive functions derivate from the set of commitments we mobilize in our communicative exchanges. After presenting this commitment-based approach, I address two possible objections (section 5)

On the importance of inner speech for self-awareness

In this presentation I use recent empirical evidence and theoretical analyses concerning the importance of language in consciousness. Preliminary clinical and neuropsychological data indicate that inner speech is deeply linked to self-awareness; also, four hypotheses concerning the crucial role inner speech plays in self-focus are presented. I conclude by proposing that genuine consciousness (i.e., self-awareness) is impossible without language

Silent reading of direct versus indirect speech activates voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex

In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said: “I'm hungry”) is perceived to be more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said [that] she was hungry). However, for silent reading, the representational consequences of this distinction are still unclear. Although many of us share the intuition of an “inner voice,” particularly during silent reading of direct speech statements in text, there has been little direct empirical confirmation of this experience so far. Combining fMRI with eye tracking in human volunteers, we show that silent reading of direct versus indirect speech engenders differential brain activation in voice-selective areas of the auditory cortex. This suggests that readers are indeed more likely to engage in perceptual simulations (or spontaneous imagery) of the reported speaker's voice when reading direct speech as opposed to meaning-equivalent indirect speech statements as part of a more vivid representation of the former. Our results may be interpreted in line with embodied cognition and form a starting point for more sophisticated interdisciplinary research on the nature of auditory mental simulation during reading

Speech monitoring and phonologically-mediated eye gaze in language perception and production: a comparison using printed word eye-tracking

The Perceptual Loop Theory of speech monitoring assumes that speakers routinely inspect their inner speech. In contrast, Huettig and Hartsuiker (2010) observed that listening to one's own speech during language production drives eye-movements to phonologically related printed words with a similar time-course as listening to someone else's speech does in speech perception experiments. This suggests that speakers use their speech perception system to listen to their own overt speech, but not to their inner speech. However, a direct comparison between production and perception with the same stimuli and participants is lacking so far. The current printed word eye-tracking experiment therefore used a within-subjects design, combining production and perception. Displays showed four words, of which one, the target, either had to be named or was presented auditorily. Accompanying words were phonologically related, semantically related, or unrelated to the target. There were small increases in looks to phonological competitors with a similar time-course in both production and perception. Phonological effects in perception however lasted longer and had a much larger magnitude. We conjecture that this difference is related to a difference in predictability of one's own and someone else's speech, which in turn has consequences for lexical competition in other-perception and possibly suppression of activation in self-perception

Роль колористики у способах відтворення внутрішнього мовлення персонажів у французькій мінімалістичній прозі кінця ХХ – початку ХХІ століть

У статті розглядаються особливості колористики у способах відтворення внутрішнього мовлення персонажів у французькій мінімалістичній прозі кінця ХХ – початку ХХІ століть. Дослідження виконано на матеріалі французь- ких мінімалістичних романів Ф. Бона, Ж. Ешноза, К. Гайї, Ж.–Ф. Туссена. (The article describes the peculiarities of coloristics in the ways of displaying the inner speech of the characters in French minimalist poetry of the late XX – early XXI centuries. The paper researches the image-symbolic context of French minimalist novels of the late XX – early XXI centuries that recreates the author’s vision of this epoch. The choice of the researched material – the novels of French minimalist writers – is based on the fact that their work is inaccessible to the general reader Ukraine due to the almost complete lack of translated texts. It is established that in the conceptual context of the French minimalist prose it is an image and symbolic transfer of the inner speech of the characters that becomes important. Among the images and symbols of the recreation of the characters’ inner speech, coloristics takes a special place in the French minimalist novels. The color nomination plays an important role in the representation of the inner speech of the characters in the works conceptual context of the discussed epoch. The colors project a number of text concepts in the fabric of inner speech. The research results reveal that the image and symbolic context of the inner speech of the characters in French minimalist prose of the late XX – early XXI century is represented in a diverse color palette. The most symbolic in the identification of the text’s mega-concept and underlying text concepts is gray, as well as black and red, due to the peculiarities of the conceptual arranging of the illustrations.