The DOI matches its Crossref record; 454 of the 456 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 1 are not checked yet.
A voice without a mouth no more: The neurobiology of language and consciousness
Open accessAbstract
Most research on the neurobiology of language ignores consciousness and vice versa. Here, language, with an emphasis on inner speech, is hypothesised to generate and sustain self-awareness, i.e., higher-order consciousness. Converging evidence supporting this hypothesis is reviewed. To account for these findings, a 'HOLISTIC' model of neurobiology of language, inner speech, and consciousness is proposed. It involves a 'core' set of inner speech production regions that initiate the experience of feeling and hearing words. These take on affective qualities, deriving from activation of associated sensory, motor, and emotional representations, involving a largely unconscious dynamic 'periphery', distributed throughout the whole brain. Responding to those words forms the basis for sustained network activity, involving 'default mode' activation and prefrontal and thalamic/brainstem selection of contextually relevant responses. Evidence for the model is reviewed, supporting neuroimaging meta-analyses conducted, and comparisons with other theories of consciousness made. The HOLISTIC model constitutes a more parsimonious and complete account of the 'neural correlates of consciousness' that has implications for a mechanistic account of mental health and wellbeing.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes.
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.84.3.231 · Cited by 11,317
The Brain's Default Network: Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease
Buckner, R. L., Andrews‐Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1440.011 · Cited by 9,761 · cited 1×
“This network was initially described as being a single ‘tasknegative’ network supporting (Andrews-Hanna, 2012; Buckner et al., 2008):”
Nagel, T. (1974) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2183914 · Cited by 7,440
The cortical organization of speech processing
Hickok, G., & Poeppel, D. (2007) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2113 · Cited by 5,495
The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities
(2002) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-1223 · Cited by 5,306
The principles of psychology, Vol I.
James, W. (1890) · doi:10.1037/10538-000 · Cited by 4,514
Brain stem reticular formation and activation of the EEG
Moruzzi, G., & Magoun, H. W. (1949) · Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/0013-4694(49)90219-9 · Cited by 4,307
Large-scale automated synthesis of human functional neuroimaging data.
Yarkoni, T., Poldrack, R. A., Nichols, T. E., Van Essen, D. C., & Wager, T. D. (2011) · Nature Methods · doi:10.1038/nmeth.1635 · Cited by 3,686
Situation models in language comprehension and memory
Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.123.2.162 · Cited by 2,877
Psychological Aspects of Natural Language Use: Our Words, Our Selves
Pennebaker, J. W., Mehl, M. R., & Niederhoffer, K. G. (2003) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145041 · Cited by 2,624
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- James, 1890, Princ. Psychol., Vol I
- Morin, 2018, The self-reflective functions of inner speech: Thirteen years later, Inn. Speech.: N. Voices, 276
- Puchalska-Wasyl, 2008, From Internal Interlocutors to Psychological Functions of Dialogical, Act. J. Constr. Psychol., 21, 239
- Shahidi, 2021, Predicting self-regulation through inner speech reflexivity modes, Lang., Discourse Soc., 9
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A landscape of consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications
Kuhn, R. L. (2024) · Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology · doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2023.12.003 · Cited by 135
The entire brain, more or less, is at work : 'Language regions' are artefacts of averagingPreprint
Aliko, S., Franch, M., Kewenig, V. N., Wang, B., Cooper, G. J., Glotfelty, A., Hayden, B. Y., Small, S. L., & Skipper, J. I. (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2023.09.01.555886 · Cited by 35
Self-citationThere is no such thing as conscious artificial intelligence
Porębski, A., & Figura, J. (2025) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-025-05868-8 · Cited by 20
“For example, Skipper (2022) argues that higher-order consciousness emerges due to the linguistic abilities of humans.”
Cortical structural differences following repeated ayahuasca use hold molecular signatures
Mallaroni, P., Mason, N. L., Kloft, L., Reckweg, J. T., van Oorsouw, K. I. M., & Ramaekers, J. G. (2023) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1217079 · Cited by 8
Kang, B., Kim, J., Yun, T.-R., Bae, H., & Kim, C.-E. (2025) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.15365 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Skipper, J. I.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Skipper, Jeremy I.
- ORCID
- Skipper, Jeremy I.
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-09
- Volume
- 140
- Pages
- 104772
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4285008516
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 456
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 0.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University College London
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Keywords
- neurobiology of language, consciousness, inner speech, self-awareness, higher-order consciousness, neural correlates of consciousness, holistic model, default mode network, prefrontal cortex, thalamus, brainstem, mental health, well-being
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Consciousness, Humans, Language, Mouth, Neurobiology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
