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It\u2019s a well-known fact that kids learn to read by speaking words aloud, and only later are they able to channel that brain activity into a silent internal monologue. But in terms of what goes on in our brains when we read silently, not much has been known.<\/p>\n
Now a group of Italian researchers have discovered that our brain carries over the same tactics from reading aloud to read silently. As you read this article, your brain is behaving as if you\u2019re speaking the words aloud to yourself \u2014 a discovery that highlights the important role sound plays in language.<\/span><\/p>\n In order to get access to the inner workings of the brain, researchers recruited 12 men and 4 women who were set to undergo surgery for malignant brain tumors. During neurosurgery, researchers attached electrodes to each participant\u2019s Broca\u2019s area \u2014\u00a0the part of the brain responsible for speech production \u2014\u00a0to monitor its activity during a series of tests.\u00a0<\/strong>Participants were fully conscious during the tests, and surgery was performed using local\u00a0anesthesia.<\/p>\n In the first part of the test, participants read Italian words and phrases out loud while researchers measured both the sound waves of the speech and electrical signals in the brain. In the second part of the test, participants silently read the same words and phrases that they had just spoken.<\/p>\n An interesting pattern emerged. When reading aloud, patients showed activity in Broca\u2019s area that corresponded to the sound frequencies of the words. And when reading silently, their brains also<\/em> mimicked the sound frequencies of each phrase. At an anatomical level, then, reading silently is the brain internally speaking to itself.<\/p>\nThe Sound of Silence<\/h5>\n