Neurophysiological evidence of motor preparation in inner speech and the effect of content predictability

Abstract Self-generated overt actions are preceded by a slow negativity as measured by electroencephalogram, which has been associated with motor preparation. Recent studies have shown that this neural activity is modulated by the predictability of action outcomes. It is unclear whether inner speech...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2023-12, Vol.33 (24), p.11556-11569
Main Authors: Chung, Lawrence K-h, Jack, Bradley N, Griffiths, Oren, Pearson, Daniel, Luque, David, Harris, Anthony W F, Spencer, Kevin M, Le Pelley, Mike E, So, Suzanne H-w, Whitford, Thomas J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contingent Negative Variation - physiology
Electroencephalography - methods
Humans
Original
Speech - physiology
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Summary:Abstract Self-generated overt actions are preceded by a slow negativity as measured by electroencephalogram, which has been associated with motor preparation. Recent studies have shown that this neural activity is modulated by the predictability of action outcomes. It is unclear whether inner speech is also preceded by a motor-related negativity and influenced by the same factor. In three experiments, we compared the contingent negative variation elicited in a cue paradigm in an active vs. passive condition. In Experiment 1, participants produced an inner phoneme, at which an audible phoneme whose identity was unpredictable was concurrently presented. We found that while passive listening elicited a late contingent negative variation, inner speech production generated a more negative late contingent negative variation. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was found when participants were instead asked to overtly vocalize the phoneme. In Experiment 3, the identity of the audible phoneme was made predictable by establishing probabilistic expectations. We observed a smaller late contingent negative variation in the inner speech condition when the identity of the audible phoneme was predictable, but not in the passive condition. These findings suggest that inner speech is associated with motor preparatory activity that may also represent the predicted action-effects of covert actions.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhad389