Mouth has its own mind

Neuroscientists researching the speech centres of the human mind have found that that part of the brain is much more dominant than previously suspected. Speech production was once thought to be controlled exclusively from an area situated in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain. Recently, however, it has become clear that speech production depends on a much more widely distributed network within the brain. The most recent research, some of which is published today, involving the recording of brain activity whilst the test subjects were being MRI scanned, shows that this network is particularly strong, ‘fluid’ and self-reinforcing.

“We’ve all heard the expression ‘Think before you speak’,” says Dr. Jens Hopmeyer who led one of the research programs, “but it turns out that it is more complicated than that and the brain may get ahead of itself when it comes to speech production. Sometimes people may find that they may literally have to override the brain’s own commands to stop themselves speaking – that is to say, their good judgement may lag behind. It really may be a case of me and my big mouth. The strength of this pre-conscious impulse will vary from individual to individual."