Your Inner Spoken Thoughts Volume

Science & Technology Discussion Forum, what regulates the level of volume to your inner spoken (or: sounded) thoughts in your brain? Do scientists know? What's it called? And do scientists know how high and how low (in volume) you can speak inner your own mind with your thoughts?

How about you... Please participate. :hat: What volume level from minimum to maxmium (in comparison with your t.v. or radio) would you give your highest inner spoken (or: sounded) thoughts in terms of sound level?

 

I've never thought about it but I tried just now and I can't really alter my inner voice's volume..I tried screaming, I tried whispering.. it was the same for both.

weird..

 

Maybe because volume is a characteristic of sound, and your inner voice doesn't produce any. I think it's a poor characterization to think of your inner voice as an actual voice. It's more of a linguistic problem than anything -- 'voice' is the best way of describing it, but that's obviously not what it is at all.

 

I feel like it varies (due to frame of mind, competing thoughts, etc) and also depends on whether it is my own original thought vs something I heard which my brain is mimicing.

 

What do you suppose a born def persons inner voice sounds like?

 

Nasally.

Sorry; couldn't resist.

 

it is hard for me to distinguish my own inner voice from others voices... i suppose that in general my inner voice remains the same volume... similar to my speaking voice... then there are other voices and noises which vary in volume from whispering to almost shouting volume...

 

I was driving my son and two other 8 year olds home the other night and they were so loud I could barely hear myself think. This reminded me of this thread. They say 120db is the threshold of pain and they were close. I estimated my inner voice is only about 1/3rd of the kids screaming so that puts it around 30-40db. I can't seem to make it go beyond that range.

 

The most interesting question to me was asked by relaxx.How could a deaf person have an inner voice? They would respond to touch and sight when they were in infancy,but would never hear what the objects they learned to identify growing up to adulthood would sound like. What would an inner voice be like to them?How could they carry on little conversations with themselves as the hearing do?What am I missing?--------My inner voice sounds the same always.However ,I do carry on conversations with my subconscious sometimes--letting it know I don't appreciate some of it's contributions or lack thereof.

 

A def persons thought process must involve a lot of symbolism and imagery. Many def learn to read and work out language in their imagination of what words might sound like. Even if what they imagine is very different from real sounds it still gives them a working internal library to reference while processing thoughts.

 

What bothers me are things like songs, advertising jingles, etc. that go on for days. Currently I've got the theme from "Jeopardy" on an endless loop. Irritating.

 

So you literally couldn't hear your inner voice?? I always thought that was just an expression for breaking concentration.

 

I could still hear my inner voice but I noticed the kids were definitely overshadowing or partially drowning out my inner voice. I find it mentally draining to think or try to listen to someone speak around loud noise, kids, or others speaking.

 

I can alter my inner voice's volume with no problem. I can even substitute other voices for my own, but only if I've had a lot of exposure to them.