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Why do we have an internal monologue?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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I'm by no means a medical expert, so just a stab in the dark here - our brains constantly process all sorts of information. Whether that's memories, input from your various senses, or a million other things. During that process, your brain is also trying to make sense of it all ("Why?", "What does it mean", "How?", etc).
Our ability to communicate and express language is intertwined in this process, which of course is what gives you the perception of dialog. So in essence, I think its just our brains trying to make sense of... its process of making sense, if that makes sense?
On a side note, I'm practically dosing myself with semantic satiation with how many times I've used "sense" here (that last one being more tongue-in-cheek)...
Do you think we had internal monologue before having language?
It's a bit difficult to say, but perhaps we did in say, maybe through the repetition of flashing images from our memory, or sounds, etc.
Even without language, that internal "making sense" of things / interpreting the world around us still exists - I'd imagine if you were to ask someone who was deaf (starting at a very early age) they'd probably say there is a monologue of some sorts, even if not by "sound", whether that be the flashing images of various hand signs, or written words, etc.
I think it's possible that internal language did exist before it could be vocalised. That is, before we evolved the necessary structures in the throat to make words, we were thinking according to basic grammatical rules e.g subject-verb-object. Words in human language are like labels for internal concepts, and those internal concepts would have existed before language was a thing.
That makes perfect sense, thanks! Seems like I was certainly onto something then. Part of me wishes that I had gone into this field as its very intriguing - perhaps in another life!
I think you're right. I want to add though that those internal concepts aren't nebulous things, they're themselves made up of other dimensions of understanding. Like, i have the word "dog", and I have an internal concept of a dog, but how exactly is "dog" conceptualized? In terms of senses. It looks like this, feels like this, makes these sounds. And it's not only the classic 5/6 senses, it's also time (it acts/moves like this) and hormones and other chemicals (it makes me feel this). Language (it's called this) is a higher level abstraction of those, but when push comes to shove a word is just one more connection/correlation with dozens of other connected sensations that together form that internal concept