How does thoughts in your mind work?

naisho

naisho

Forum Disorders M.D.,Ph.D
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So, awhile back I had this feeling that hearing people might think differently than deaf. Hear me out, not as in what they're thinking, but how they think about it. This is probably the focus of a neurological research or something somewhere.

If you're hearing, partially hearing, or even late deafened, how does your thoughts work? Say for example you woke up at 6:25 am and you realize you have to go to work, or there's an appointment at 9. Did you think for a second on how your brain collaborates the information?

The method mine does is kind of a monologue. It's almost like a voice, not an audible voice but constructed in sentences. For the waking up example, I end up thinking "I have to go before 7", exact words, it is like I am speaking inside my head, I think it's a product of spoken language that made me think this way. If you've ever thought, "Shit!" inside your head then I figure you might have the same thing going on.

Now the curious question I wonder is how it works for someone who never had the access to spoken language - are words constructed in your thoughts, or do you sign inside your head? Just curious if there is a method inside your head. Someone mentioned to me that they did it telepathically, I was wowed with that.
 
No . This has been discussed a lot. For me , to see what I need to do , it is kind of like a rushing train ride, where my brain sees it in sequence.

No voice in my head speaks. I just see what I have to do, in the correct steps.
 
I basically have a visual in my head of my day planner or calendar. I do not "hear" any voices in my head. I am known for my lists and planning, so I always have a mental picture of the list or planner. It all falls in with my OCD.
 
Something sort of similar is how deaf vs hearing (or even late deaf) read. My husband and I have the same level of education and were raised reading at an early age. He was born deaf, I am late deaf. My husband reads so much faster than I do. He explains that is because when he was taught to read, he was never taught to "sound it out" like hearing kids are taught. I think people raised with phonics (connecting sounds with words) continue to "sound it out" in their head, which slows us down.

Or what about dreaming? Do people who think in words also dream with words?
 
Well it's kinda different for me. First i was hearing until 7 years ago (woke up stone deaf)...to be honest nothing has changed the way I thought at that point, except i could not hear anything , not even my own voice, BUT I had all kinds of things going on in my brain..baseball games like on a radio, people talking to each other, a whistling man, and my mom calling my name, loud sudden bangs and dog barking. laughing..now the Drs at Johns hopkins thought I was having audio hallucinations so they sent me to a psychiatrist. he determined I indeed was "hearing" these sounds in my head and even had a name for it. It is called Memory Recall. Happens alot to ppl who lose their hearing latter in life. The brain is used to "hearing" and transmitting the to action, but since I was hearing NOTHNG, my brain was recalling things i had heard in the past..so even tho I hear nothing from the outside ..I have not had a quiet moment in my head since I woke up that morning stone deaf. I am a very logical thinking person so once it was explained to me I learned to "control the volume" laughing of all the background noise. Then I had the incident that left me with a Traumatic brain Injury..Whew!..I have had 5 surgeries to stop bleeds and even remove dead brain tissue in my right frontal lobe.
So NOW...the memory recall is back full blast..laughing..but my brain has been so damaged that I have terrible memory loss. even thru all this..my way of thinking and and doing things has not changed...amazes the heck out of my Drs. I was a writer by profession, published even. My imagination is still full functioning, but there are times i can not remember how to spell my last name..geez Hope that all makes sense..today my brain is ok right now but by mid day it turns to Jello..laughing..some of yo may wonder how I can laugh about all this...It is my Faith that what ever happened or will happen in my life is a part of a greater plan..not mine..smile...My Creator. Peace to you
 
I know I've answered before but since this has come up again, I don't mind re-answering....I have LD and I tend to think in pictures, or signs. I use landmarks to get around.
 
I think with words, voice I also listen to music in my head I can no longer hear the words with music but they are stored up there. But I now sign when I think, like talk to myself, don't realize I do it but everyone else does...
 
I usually run on visual "knowledge" in doing things. For example, I can route my destination like a GPS in my head. For scheduling things, I usually have a monologue to try to remember but usually I just write it down so that I can re-call that information easier later. However, I will have a "voice" inside my head if I get stuck doing something or under I'm under a lot of pressure. I will say that there is something unique between myself and hearing people is that when I speak, I usually almost always have a visual of the word in its spelling/or actual object, otherwise I screw up the the pronunciation. When ask my family how they know how to speak, they just do it, they don't have a visual system integrated.
 
dogmom said:
I know I've answered before but since this has come up again, I don't mind re-answering....I have LD and I tend to think in pictures, or signs. I use landmarks to get around.
Click to expand...

Thank you dogmom! Now I have finally found the answer to why I am such a mess with detailed directions. If someone tells me it is near 'the mall' or 'meet me at the clock' I have no problem getting there. But detailed directions - "turn right, turn left, passed the second traffic light etc" I'm in total confusion.

This thread is great! Thank you Naisho :ty:
 
P.S. I am looking forward to having less words in my head from the 'oral only' therapy and having visual interpretations of my thoughts. Now, I understand why I get confused so easily. Finally waking up to the fact that my brain is actually wired visually. I can release myself from that 'prison' of thinking in words only. I know it will be a gradual process as I transition to visual only in all aspects. It will be such a relief of stress.
 
I think mind is powerful thinking machine and your mind work according to that thoughts.I like the concept of 'visual interpretations thought'.

Negative and destructive thoughts gives frustration and failure.
What thought or idea you hold in your conscious mind you will get that response from your subconscious mind.

business law firm
 
:wave:BecLak no problem
I've always been a very visual person...give me a list vocally of instructions, or even a "Story problem" type thing, and I'd likely be "huh?" With the oral way, I'd also be very likely to -if I heard all of it - to "get" parts of it and miss some. I don't know what feet or anything like that is. So, give me a picture/show me, and - though I have issues with spatial orientation - I'm much more likely to be able to figure that out visually.

Mick, what you wrote there reminded me of the mind-body connection. I thought you put it powerfully-
 
dogmom said:
:wave:BecLak no problem
I've always been a very visual person...give me a list vocally of instructions, or even a "Story problem" type thing, and I'd likely be "huh?" With the oral way, I'd also be very likely to -if I heard all of it - to "get" parts of it and miss some. I don't know what feet or anything like that is. So, give me a picture/show me, and - though I have issues with spatial orientation - I'm much more likely to be able to figure that out visually.

Mick, what you wrote there reminded me of the mind-body connection. I thought you put it powerfully-
Click to expand...

I, too, am both visual and kinsthetic. If I think it words, I don't hear a spoken word in my head. I see the printed version. I think that is why the explanations for the ways a visual language is processed was so easy for me to grasp.

I think, also, that what we are talking about in some of these cases is simply taking thought back to it's simplest and most basic form.....feeling and intuition. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, many people loose touch with, or purposely try to block, this basic form of cognition.
 
I think in voices and pictures, mostly. Words with voice at the same time as well.
 
When writing poems, I tend to think words that emit emotions e.g. "rose" depicts deep care, love or romance then the sound that it seems to sound "rooooseeee" as soothing as a silk, then picture it if it's an object. Sentence seems to appear swirling around my mind, in poetic sense, rhythm(ing) by itself.

O! Rose, red Rose!
Rose that connects!
Redder than bleeding blood!
That spills from my heart,
O! Rose, red Rose!
The radiating one that glows us all!
 
LinuxGold said:
When writing poems, I tend to think words that emit emotions e.g. "rose" depicts deep care, love or romance then the sound that it seems to sound "rooooseeee" as soothing as a silk, then picture it if it's an object. Sentence seems to appear swirling around my mind, in poetic sense, rhythm(ing) by itself.

O! Rose, red Rose!
Rose that connects!
Redder than bleeding blood!
That spills from my heart,
O! Rose, red Rose!
The radiating one that glows us all!
Click to expand...

No doubt the reason that you enjoy writing poetry is because you are in touch with that basic thought process of feeling and intuition. ASL taps into that as well.
 
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