Thinking and Speech

Thinking and Speech: Brain Function

The human brain is truly unique. With his abilities he surpasses the brains of all other living creatures on Earth. One of the main functions of the brain is thinking and speech. Let's look at how the brain works to understand how thinking and speech occur.

The brain has nerve centers that control various functions such as thinking, speech, memory, etc. However, these functions are not performed by the entire brain, but only by the cerebral cortex, which consists of gray matter. Gray matter makes up only 10% of the total number of brain cells, but contains 10 billion neurons. Sensory and motor areas of voluntary muscles are located in the frontal and parietal lobes, respectively.

The nerve centers of feelings are located in specific lobes, and next to each of them there is an archive, or memory center. For example, the visual memory center can be compared to a photographic archive, in which there is a card with the image and name of every object known to us.

Thinking and speech, which are purely human properties, are localized in the frontal lobes of the brain. The speech center is located in the left hemisphere of the brain, and it is in this center that the concept expressed by each word is formed. Other nearby centers maintain “archives” of word meanings and “search” for the words we need to express what we want to say.

The next step is the materialization of thoughts through nerve impulses that move the speech-producing organs (spoken speech) or control the muscles of the arm and hand (written speech). This occurs thanks to a complex network of nerve fibers that transmit signals from the brain to the speech organs or hand.

But how does our brain work during sleep? During sleep, the body restores energy used during the day. However, the rest of the nervous system is only partial, since the work of the brain continues. This activity is reflected in dreams, which always happen, although when we wake up we often do not remember them.

Dreams are a kind of “outlet” of our subconscious. This mechanism consists of various stages in which phases of “slow” sleep are replaced by phases of “fast” sleep. It is in the phases of “rapid” sleep that we have dreams: if we sleep for 8 hours, we dream during four or five phases, each lasting 15-20 minutes.

Interestingly, during dreams, the brain continues to work and create new connections between neurons, which can contribute to the development of our thinking and creativity. Dreams can also help us process information we received during the day and remember it for a longer period of time.

As a result, thinking and speech are complex processes that occur in the human brain. Our brain works continuously, even during sleep, to process information and create new connections between neurons. Understanding how our brains work can help us better understand how we think and speak, and how we can improve these processes.