Today in Science: Not everyone has an inner voice in their head

Daily science, inspiration, insight                     SPONSORED BY July 8, 2024: People have very different experiences of an inner voice, how volunteering can help teens' mental health, and hot pavement can cause second-degree burns. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES Inner Voice Some people have an inner monologue running through their head at all times. Others have very little to no voice in their minds. A recent study evaluated responses to memory and language questions from 47 people with a "strong" inner voice and 46 with a "weak" one. Participants with weak inner voices performed worse at psychological tasks that measure verbal memory, among other things, than did those with strong inner voices. Why this matters: Inner speech may be vital for self-regulation and executive functioning, like task-switching, memory and decision-making, or even for education. "Variations in children's ability to represent speech sounds may impact the ability to learn the relation between sounds and writing," says Ladislas Nalborczyk, a neuroscientist at the Paris Brain Institute. What the experts say: "Our inner experience can differ from moment to moment, depending on what we're doing," says Charles Fernyhough, a psychologist at Durham University in England. "The interesting question for the future is whether certain kinds of inner speech can help us solve particular cognitive challenges." A Helping Hand A 2023 analysis of 50,000 children and adolescents found that young people who had participated in community service or had volunteered over the previous 12 months were more likely to be in very good or excellent health and stayed calm when faced with challenges. Teenagers were less likely to be anxious. A small study of 14- to 20-year-olds with mild to moderate depression or anxiety showed a 19 percent reduction of their symptoms after 30 hours of volunteering. Why this matters: Rates of childhood and teenage depression and anxiety have gone up at an alarming rate. The proportion of young people reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness had increased by 40 percent over the previous decade. What the experts say: Helping others improves mood and raises self-esteem. It provides fertile ground for building social connections. Many teens say they don't feel important, says Parissa Ballard, a developmental psychologist at Wake Forest. "Volunteering can give people a different sense of themselves, a sense of confidence and efficacy."  TODAY'S NEWS A NASA instrument on June 19 recorded scorching roads and sidewalks across Phoenix where contact with skin could cause serious burns in minutes to seconds, as indicated in the legend above.NASA/JPL-Caltech • Pavement roasting under the hot summer sun can get hot enough to inflict second-degree burns. | 4 min read • A pair of hormones work in tandem to activate or suppress mosquitoes' cravings for blood. | 2 min read • Why some people don't get sick with COVID. | 4 min read • Popcorn is an ancient snack, and archaeologists have found evidence that humans have been eating it for thousands of years. | 3 min read More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • Heat waves kill more people than all other natural disasters combined (including hurricanes, tornadoes and floods). And yet because the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn't declare them disasters, cities suffering from heat waves do not get federal funding when extreme weather strikes. Not only should heat waves be added to FEMA's list of disasters, but the agency should implement real-time health data gathering to measure the extent of impact, writes Alistair Hayden, a Cornell professor studying public health and emergency management. | 5 min read More Opinion A CUSTOM ARTICLE SPONSORED BY LEGEND BIOTECH CAR-T Cells Approach Cancer's Front Lines CAR-T therapies extend lives, but often reach patients too late. Now that's changing. The inner voice may play a role in cognition, memory and task switching. But wouldn't it be nice to shut that monologue down on occasion? An overactive mind can prevent sleep, ramp up stress and disrupt focus on work. If you've ever practiced meditating, after a while you start to notice just how much the inner voice is constantly running. It seems a useful tool to be able to quiet the mind when it's not needed, and let it run when work needs to be done. Welcome to a new week! Reach out any time with feedback on how to improve this newsletter: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences View in browser