Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology.

Abstract

Inner speech—also known as covert speech or verbal thinking—has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological challenges in its study, before reviewing current evidence on inner speech in children and adults from both typical and atypical populations. We conclude by considering prospects for an integrated cognitive science of inner speech, and present a multicomponent model of the phenomenon informed by developmental, cognitive, and psycholinguistic considerations. Despite its variability among individuals and across the life span, inner speech appears to perform significant functions in human cognition, which in some cases reflect its developmental origins and its sharing of resources with other cognitive processes.

Going covert: Inner and private speech in language learning

“…This view thus either implicitly adheres to a monolingual perspective or disregards the participants' bi-or multilingualism as irrelevant to the study of IS. It should be mentioned, however, that some reviews of the literature do recognize variation in language experience (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough 2015a) or bilingualism (Morin 2012) as topics of interest related to IS research.…”

“…Socially interactive settings (classrooms, playground) and activities approximating conditions of naturalistic L2 use, including learnerlearner and teacher-learner interactions, may also foster self-directed use of the L2 (Smith 2007;Steinbach-Kohler & Thorne 2011). Use of the L2 in social interactions may prove particularly essential in the development of the dialogic (i.e., conversation-like) form of IS as suggested by studies on the effects of social speech impairment in L1 (Williams et al 2012;Alderson-Day & Fernyhough 2015a) and on the evolution of an internal L2 voice (Shigematsu 2010), just as the social presence of interacting or non-interacting others may have a 'stimulating' effect on PS occurrence (San Martín 2011;Damianova et al 2012;McGonigle-Chalmers et al 2014). …”

“…Research on IS from a generic-L1 perspective has been intensively produced in recent years, including thorough reviews or syntheses of the literature (e.g., Brown 2009;Morin 2012;Perrone-Bertolotti et al 2014;Alderson-Day & Fernyhough 2015a) as well as empirical studies. This research has a predominantly 'adult' or 'fully developed' IS focus, insofar as studies using child populations usually fall under the realm of 'PS' or 'developmental IS' research (to be discussed below).…”

The social cognition of auditory verbal hallucinations

“…En la filosofía de la mente contemporánea fenomenología se utiliza como el estudio del carácter cualitativo de nuestras experiencias o qualia. Es este sentido el que tenemos en mente cuando nos referimos a "fenomenología" y este es el que se trata cuando se habla de la fenomenología de las AAV (Alderson-Day y Fernyhough, 2015). do que lanzar predicciones es una propiedad básica de cómo funciona el cerebro.…”

“…Quien oye voces no es alguien que resulte ser testigo del fenómeno social que son las AAV sin tomar parte, sino que este oye una voz con la que se relaciona y responde. Tanto es así que estudios con neuroimagen han mostrado como las regiones asociadas con el lenguaje y la comunicación externa se activan con las AAV y otras regiones cerebrales como el surco superior temporal o la junción temporo-parietal asociadas con la "teoría de la mente" y cognición social se activan también con las AAV (Alderson-Day y Fernyhough, 2015). Por eso con todos los avances en la neurociencia social cognitiva es preciso introducir modelos sociales internalizados para entender las AAV.…”