Previous research showed that mental rumination, considered as a form of repetitive and negative inner speech, is associated with increased facial muscular activity. However, the relation between these muscular activations and the underlying mental processes is still unclear. In this study, we tried to disentangle the facial electromyographic correlates of induced rumination that were related to either i) mechanisms of (inner) speech production or ii) rumination as a state of pondering on negative affects. To this end, we compared two groups submitted to two types of rumination induction. The first type of induction was designed to specifically induce rumination in a verbal modality whereas the second one was designed to induce rumination in a visual modality. Following the *motor simulation view* of inner speech production, we hypothesised that the verbal rumination induction should result in a higher increase of activity in the speech-related muscles as compared to the non-verbal rumination induction. We also hypothesised that relaxation focused on the orofacial area should be more efficient in reducing rumination (when experienced in a verbal modality) than a relaxation focused on a non-orofacial area. Our results do not corroborate these hypotheses, as we did not find any group-specific electromyographic correlates of rumination. Moreover, the two relaxation types were similarly efficient in reducing rumination, whatever the rumination induction. We discuss these results in relation to the inner speech literature and suggest that because rumination is a habitual and automatic form of emotion regulation, it might be a particularly (strongly) internalised and condensed form of inner speech. Pre-registered protocol, preprint, data, as well as reproducible code and figures are available at: https://osf.io/c9pag/.
This study explores whether the speech motor system is involved in verbal rumination, a particular kind of inner speech. The motor simulation hypothesis considers inner speech as an action, accompanied by simulated speech percepts, that would as such involve the speech motor system. If so, we could expect verbal rumination to be disrupted by concurrent involvement of the speech apparatus. We recruited 106 healthy adults and measured their self-reported level of rumination before and after a rumination induction, as well as after five minutes of a subsequent motor task (either an articulatory suppression -silent mouthing- task or a finger tapping control task). We also evaluated to what extent ruminative thoughts were experienced with a verbal quality or in another modality (e.g., visual images, non-speech sounds). Self-reported levels of rumination showed a decrease after both motor activities (silent mouthing and finger-tapping), with only a slightly stronger decrease after the articulatory suppression than the control task. The rumination level decrease was not moderated by the modality of the ruminative thoughts. We discuss these results within the framework of verbal rumination as simulated speech and suggest alternative ways to test the engagement of the speech motor system in verbal rumination. Pre-registered protocol, preprint, data, as well as reproducible code and figures are available at: https://osf.io/3bh67/.
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