Whitford Thomas J, Spencer Kevin M, Godwin Marianthe, Hirano Yoji, Chung Lawrence Kin-Hei, Vodovozov Wadim, Griffiths Oren, Harris Anthony W F, Le Pelley Mike E, Jack Bradley N
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales 2145, Australia.
eNeuro. 2025 Feb 10;12(2). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0297-24.2025. Print 2025 Feb.
Inner speech refers to the silent production of language in one's mind. As a purely mental action without obvious physical manifestations, inner speech has been notoriously difficult to quantify. To address this issue, the present study repurposed the phenomenon of speaking-induced suppression, wherein overt speech has been consistently shown to elicit reduced auditory evoked potentials compared with externally generated speech, as well as changes in oscillatory activity in gamma and theta frequency bands. Given the functional similarities between inner and overt speech, we used an established experimental protocol to investigate whether similar metrics could be used to distinguish the content of inner speech. Healthy participants ( = 129) produced an inner syllable at a precisely specified time. An audible syllable was concurrently presented which either matched or mismatched the content of the inner syllable. The results revealed that Match and Mismatch conditions could be differentiated on the basis of their evoked oscillations in the gamma, theta, and alpha bands. Notably, there was a gamma-band oscillation in the vicinity of the P2 that differed between the Match and Mismatch conditions, suggesting that "late" gamma-band activity may index consciously perceived expectancy violations, or cognitive prediction errors. Regarding the auditory evoked potentials, the N1 component was suppressed in the Match condition while the P2 component was suppressed in the Mismatch condition, replicating previous findings. This study provides support for the existence of "inner speaking-induced suppression", and demonstrates that inner syllables can be differentiated based on their influence on the electroencephalographic activity elicited by simultaneously-presented audible syllables.
内部言语是指在脑海中无声地产生语言。作为一种没有明显身体表现的纯粹心理活动,内部言语一直以来都极难进行量化。为了解决这个问题,本研究重新利用了言语诱发抑制现象,即在该现象中,与外部产生的言语相比,明显的言语一直被证明会引发听觉诱发电位降低,以及γ和θ频段振荡活动的变化。鉴于内部言语和明显言语之间的功能相似性,我们使用了一个既定的实验方案来研究是否可以使用类似的指标来区分内部言语的内容。健康参与者(n = 129)在精确指定的时间产生一个内部音节。同时呈现一个可听见的音节,该音节与内部音节的内容匹配或不匹配。结果显示,匹配和不匹配条件可以根据它们在γ、θ和α频段诱发的振荡来区分。值得注意的是,在P2附近存在一个γ频段振荡,在匹配和不匹配条件之间有所不同,这表明“晚期”γ频段活动可能指示有意识地感知到的预期违反或认知预测误差。关于听觉诱发电位,在匹配条件下N1成分受到抑制,而在不匹配条件下P2成分受到抑制,这重复了先前的研究结果。本研究为“内部言语诱发抑制”的存在提供了支持,并表明可以根据内部音节对同时呈现的可听见音节诱发的脑电图活动的影响来区分内部音节。