Modulation of activity in temporal cortex during generation of inner speech
Open accessAbstract
Monitoring one's thoughts (in the verbal modality) is thought to be critically dependent on the interaction between areas that generate and perceive inner speech in the frontal and temporal cortex, respectively. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the relationship between activity in these areas while the rate of inner speech generation was varied experimentally. The faster rate was associated with activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right pre- and postcentral gyri and both superior temporal gyri. Thus, temporal cortical activation was associated with increasing the rate of covert articulation, in the absence of external auditory input, suggesting that there is effective fronto-temporal connectivity. Furthermore, this may provide support for the existence of feed forward models, which suggest that activity in regions responsible for verbal perception is modulated by activity in areas that generate inner speech.
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Activations of posterior STG and lateral regions of temporal cortex are observed depending on specific task demands, such as self-monitoring of inner speech rate and phonology.
“Although the IFG and insula are often implicated in inner-speech tasks (although see Jones, 2009), activations of posterior STG and lateral regions of temporal cortex are observed depending on specific task demands, such as self-monitoring of inner speech rate (Shergill et al., 2002) and phonology (Aleman et al., 2005).”
From The brain's conversation with itself: neural substrates of dialogic inner speech (2016) · cites this paper as Shergill et al., 2002
Typical inner speech elicitation methods include subvocal articulation of words and sentences or imagining speech with varying characteristics.
“Typical inner speech elicitation methods include subvocal articulation of words and sentences or imagining speech with varying characteristics (e.g., first- vs. third-person speech, or fast vs. slow speech; Shergill et al., 2002).”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Shergill et al., 2002
Left planum temporale is involved in auditory imagery.
“These studies are consistent with the prior hypothesis that the left planum temporale is involved in auditory imagery and would explain why activation in the left planum temporale increased with the rate of covert (silent) speech production (Shergill et al., 2002), if we assume that auditory imagery (or inner speech) occurs automatically during covert speech production.”
From A review and synthesis of the first 20years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading (2012) · cites this paper as Shergill et al., 2002
Activation in left planum temporale increases with rate of covert (silent) speech production.
“would explain why activation in the left planum temporale increased with the rate of covert (silent) speech production (Shergill et al., 2002)”
From A review and synthesis of the first 20years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading (2012) · cites this paper as Shergill et al., 2002
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- Authors
- Shergill, S. S., Brammer, M. J., Fukuda, R., Bullmore, E., Amaro, E., Murray, R. M., & McGuire, P. K.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Venue
- Human Brain Mapping
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-06-27
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 219-227
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0193
- PMC
- PMC6871832
- OpenAlex
- W1982422909
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 3.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Keywords
- inner speech, temporal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, fronto-temporal connectivity, feedforward models
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Cognition, Frontal Lobe, Hallucinations, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Speech Perception, Temporal Lobe
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