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The brain’s auditory cortex becomes more active when listening to dull speech, suggesting an “inner voice” works to make it more interesting. The brain also uses this inner voice when reading silently. The brain doubles in size during the first year of life and uses 20% of the body’s oxygen and blood flow.
Most people can’t captivate an audience like Martin Luther King Jr. or Winston Churchill, but the human mind does its best to mask the difference, according to researchers at the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology. Scientists played 18 volunteers audio tapes during MRI scans. They found that when listeners heard dull, monotonous speech, the brain’s auditory cortex became more active, suggesting that an “inner voice” was working to make the speech more interesting, in order to hold the listener’s attention. In other words, the brain “talks” about what it hears. Researchers had already determined that the brain uses the same inner voice when a person reads silently. One of the researchers, Prof. Christopher Scheepers, said the latest study builds on what was already known about the brain’s creation of that inner voice. “It now appears that the brain does the same when it hears monotonously spoken direct quotes,” he explained.
The magic of the human brain:
A baby’s brain doubles in size during the first year of life; continues to grow into late adolescence.
The brain can’t feel pain, but it interprets it, with some neurons exchanging information at 250 mph (402 km/h).
Although the brain accounts for only about 3% of a person’s weight, it uses about 20% of the body’s oxygen and blood flow.
