We spend a lot of our time talking to ourselves in our heads. Credit: UNSW Science
Dec. 8, 2017 (Medical Xpress) -- New research showing that talking to ourselves in our heads may be the same as speaking our thoughts out loud could help explain why people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia hear voices.
As far our brains are concerned, talking to ourselves in our heads may be fundamentally the same as speaking our thoughts out loud, new research shows.
The findings may have important implications for understanding why people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia hear voices.
UNSW Sydney scientist and study first author Associate Professor Thomas Whitford says it has long been thought that these auditory-verbal hallucinations arise from abnormalities in inner speech -- our silent internal dialogue.
"This study provides the tools for investigating this once untestable assumption," says Associate Professor Whitford, of the UNSW School of Psychology.
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