Neural Networks for Inner Speech with Charles Fernyhough

Tuesday, June 4th at 9am Pacific Daylight Savings Time

Guest Speaker: Charles Fernyhough, Professor Department of Psychology, Durham University, UK

Contact Francine Smolucha at lsmolucha@hotmail.com for the ZOOM link.

Summary: Charles Fernyhough and his colleagues’s pioneering research identified the neural network for inner speech.The Dorsal Language Stream is activated during both overt speech and covert (inner speech). This discovery is consistent with Vygotsky’s theory of internalized speech. Activation of the DLS is sufficient for monologic inner speech that doesn’t involve an imaginary conversation with another person. However, dialogical inner speech involves further connections with the parietal lobe. There are many implications for understanding the role of inner speech, its development, and how it networks with other psychological functions.

Readings:

Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin 141 (5), 931-965.

Geva. S., & Fernyhough. C. (2019). A Penny for Your Thoughts: Children’s Inner Speech and Its Neuro-Development. Frontiers in Psychol.ogy 10, 1708.

Additional Reading on the topic of inner speech by Tatiana Akhutina:

Akhutina, T. V., & Panikratova, Y. R. (in press). Vygotsky’s Concepts of “Inner Speech”, “Sense”, “Inner Speech Field” and Situation Model of Text. To appear in Culture and Education, SAGE Publication Ltd. Editor N. Veresov.

Akhutina, T.V. (2003). The Role of Inner Speech in the Construction of an Utterance. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, vol. 41, nos. 3/4, May–June/July–August 2003, 49–74.