HEALTH COACH - The surprising benefits of talking to yourself

HEALTH COACH -

 The surprising benefits of talking to yourself  
 C & # 39; is clearly because the & # 39; objective of speaking aloud is to communicate with others. But given that many of us are talking, could it be normal after all - or maybe even healthy? 
 
 We speak to each other silently all the time. I do not mean the "strange" where are my keys? " Commentary - we often engage in deep and transcendental conversations at 3 am with no one but our own thoughts to answer. 
 
 This inner discourse is very healthy, playing a special role in maintaining our mind. This helps us to organize our thoughts, to plan actions, to consolidate memory and to modulate emotions. In other words, it helps us to control ourselves. 
 
 Speaking out loud can be an extension of this silent internal conversation, caused when an engine control is unintentionally triggered. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget observed that toddlers begin to control their actions as soon as they begin to develop their language. When you approach a hot surface, the toddler usually says "hot, warm" aloud and move away. This kind of behavior can continue into adulthood. 
 
 
 It feels instant, but how long should it be thought? 
 
 Non-human primates obviously not talking Themselves but have been found to control their actions by activating targets in a type of memory that is specific to the task. If the task is visual, such as matching bananas, a monkey activates a different area of ​​the prefrontal cortex than when matching voices in a hearing task. 
 
 But when humans are tested in a similar way, they seem to activate the same areas regardless of the type of task. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 In a fascinating study , The researchers found that our brains can function like those of the monkeys if we do not stop talking to us, whether it is silent or out loud. 
 
 In the experiment, the researchers asked the participants to repeat sounds without meaning aloud ("blah-blah-blah") while performing visual and sound tasks. Because we can not say two things at the same time, whispering these sounds made participants unable to tell themselves what to do in each task. Under these circumstances, humans behaved like monkeys, activating distinct visual and sound areas of the brain for each task. 
 
 This study showed elegantly that talking to ourselves n & # 39; is probably not the only way to control our behavior, but it is one that we prefer and defaults. But that does not mean that we can always control what we say. 
 
 Indeed, there are many situations in which our inner conversation can become problematic. When we talk to ourselves at 3 in the morning, we really try to stop thinking so that we can go back to sleep. But thinking not to think, it only transmits your wandering mind, activating all kinds of thoughts - including inner conversations - almost randomly. 
 
 Why you should not feel guilty about lying on the brain 
 
 This type of mental activation is very difficult to control but seems to be suppressed when we focus on something with a goal. Reading a book, for example, should be able to remove internal conversations quite effectively, making it a favorite activity to relax before falling asleep. 
 
 
 
  
 
 But the researchers found that patients suffering from dyspepsia, 39 anxiety or depression activate these "random" thoughts even when they try to perform an unrelated task.Our mental health seems to depend both on our ability to activate thoughts relevant to the current task and To remove irrelevant problems - mental noise. 
 
 It is not surprising that several clinical techniques, such as physical attention, aim to decline the mind and reduce When the wandering spirit becomes complete T out of control, we enter into a dream state displaying an incoherent and inappropriate conversation of context that could be described as a mental illness. 
 
 
 
 Conversation Loud and Silent 
 
 
 So your inner conversation helps to organize your thoughts and adapt them flexibly to changing demands but is there Thing to speak aloud? Why not keep it to yourself, so there is no one else to hear your words? 
 
 In a recent experiment in our laboratory of the University of Bangor, Alexander Kirkham and I demonstrated that speaking aloud actually enhances the control of a task, Beyond Of what is achieved by inner discourse. 
 
 We gave 28 participants a set of written instructions, and we asked to read them either silently or aloud. We measured the concentration and performance of the participants on the tasks, and both were improved when the instructions of the task were read aloud. 
 
 "abnormal" people: that & # 39; is what happens when & # 39; a language n & # 39; no words for numbers? 
 
 Much of this benefit seems to come simply from hearing, as hearing controls seem to be better controllers of behavior than the writings. Our results have shown that even if we call ourselves to take control over difficult tasks, performance improves considerably when we do it aloud. 
 
 This could probably explain why so many professional athletes such as tennis players, if frequently talk during competitions, often at crucial points in a game, saying things like "Come!" To help them stay focused. Our ability to generate self-explanatory instructions is actually one of the best tools for cognitive control, and it just works best when it's said aloud. 
 
 So, you have it. Speaking out loud, when the mind does not wander, could actually be a sign of high cognitive functioning. Rather than being mentally ill, this can make you intellectually more competent. 
 
 The stereotype of the crazy scientist who speaks to themselves, lost in his own inner world, could reflect the reality of a genius who uses all the means at their disposal to increase their cerebral power. 
 
 
 Paloma Mari-Beffa is a lecturer in neuropsychology and cognitive psychology at the University of Bangor.