Neurophysiological evidence of efference copies to inner speech

Thomas J. Whitford*, Bradley N. Jack, Daniel Pearson, Oren Griffiths, David Luque, Anthony W.F. Harris, Kevin M. Spencer, Mike E. Le Pelley

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Efference copies refer to internal duplicates of movement-producing neural signals. Their primary function is to predict, and often suppress, the sensory consequences of willed movements. Efference copies have been almost exclusively investigated in the context of overt movements. The current electrophysiological study employed a novel design to show that inner speech - the silent production of words in one’s mind - is also associated with an efference copy. Participants produced an inner phoneme at a precisely specified time, at which an audible phoneme was concurrently presented. The production of the inner phoneme resulted in electrophysiological suppression, but only if the content of the inner phoneme matched the content of the audible phoneme. These results demonstrate that inner speech - a purely mental action - is associated with an efference copy with detailed auditory properties. These findings suggest that inner speech may ultimately reflect a special type of overt speech.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere28197
JournaleLife
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Dec 2017
Externally publishedYes

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