Does thought have sound?

Q

Quigly

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Registered Senior Member
I have heard before that thoughts produce sound, but it is on a level that we could never really hear it. You know, like how animals can hear certain sounds that we can't and that kind of thing. Does our thoughts have sound?
Does our thought emit energy?

Any "thoughts" on this. (Speak up, I can't hear you)
 
What is thought? If it is a change in molecules in the brain, then a thought would be observable. With the right equipment, you can 'hear' the brain at work. Is this thought?
That would mean we are always thinking.

If you think thought is something else, but still want to measure it, how do you tell when it is not? When are you not thinking?
 
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It has been proven that one must think either on a concious or subconcious level to stay alive. We must think to make our heart beat or to breathe. I think that the exchange of molecules could possibly create sound. Electrical impulses would also make sound. So, it is entirely possible that our thoughts make sounds.
 
How do electrical impulses measured in tenths of a volt actually produce rarefied and compressed air waves? Jeez, my head is not a Van de Graaf or Tesla coil!

So right now, although I stand ready to be convinced, my thoughts do not produce any sound, be it infrasonic or ultrasonic.
 
Seems to me that any change in the state of the brain would cause a vibration that could create sound, however small and unmeasurable.
 
This is very intriguing.

Here I thought what ya meant was thoughts making sound as if ya were actually hearing what ya were thinking about.

I know that if I'm thinking of someone's voice or a certain song, it's almost as if I'm hearing it. I know I'm not, and I can tell I'm not, but I can hear it within my head. I remember being intrigued with this when I was in first or second grade!

As for the electrical impulses produced when we think making sound, that is totally plausable, maybe probable!

Maybe the human brain can pick up and process these sounds without our being aware of these sounds. Maybe we can tell if there's someone in the room with us even if we can't see or hear them. Maybe we can "hear" them thinking.

Does it sound remotely plausable to anyone?
 
Does each different thought make a different sound? Does sound go by letters, words, or sentences, or full images?

If the sound is detectable, at what distance is it non-detectable anymore?
 
Quiet, I can't hear myself thinking.

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If sound is not detectable, then how do you know it's sound? Guessing?
 
Sound is detecting kinetic energy in a medium. The sounds we hear are in a specific range, so the energy detected with our ear is defined as sound. However, other animals detect this energy at much higher ranges than humans, and it is still defined as sound.

Thus, the energy in an electron firing would cause a disturbance in the medium that's your head, and produce sound. But the energy in that wave would be extremely weak, and would probably be lost in the background noise of blood being pumped around.
 
Well, here is what got me thinking about it. I was doing a discussion with some young adults at Church and we were talking about if God can hear your thoughts or if we must speak out loud to him. (This is not a religion thread so we won't really get into this), but it got me thinking. Then one of the college students said, well doesn't our thoughts have sound, even if on a undetectable level. I wasn't sure.

I was thinking about how many times you say the exact same thing that someone else is saying at the same moment. Or how sometimes you make the same punchline comment as someone else was going to say. Or begin a conversation point that someone else was about to start, but you beat them to it. It is weird when that happens, and maybe Math can prove it probable, but what if there are some sort of Thought Sound waves that we can't pick up with our sub-conscience or something. You have heard the term, oh you read my mind. Well I don't know about all that, but wonder if thoughts emit sound. Does anyone know of any scientists that have tried to prove this or thought along these lines? Can it even be proven?
 
Roman said:
Sound is detecting kinetic energy in a medium. The sounds we hear are in a specific range, so the energy detected with our ear is defined as sound. However, other animals detect this energy at much higher ranges than humans, and it is still defined as sound.

Thus, the energy in an electron firing would cause a disturbance in the medium that's your head, and produce sound. But the energy in that wave would be extremely weak, and would probably be lost in the background noise of blood being pumped around.
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That's true. How do these sounds, which I think would probably sound like radio static if one hears them, propagate throughout the cerebrospinal fluid, through the skull and skin and into the air, and into one's ears (taking into affect, attenuation losses and the inverse-square law) discernibly without being masked by the pumping of blood or other noises?
 
ILikeSalt said:
It has been proven that one must think either on a concious or subconcious level to stay alive. We must think to make our heart beat or to breathe. I think that the exchange of molecules could possibly create sound. Electrical impulses would also make sound. So, it is entirely possible that our thoughts make sounds.
Click to expand...

No that is not thinking. Thinking is confined to the higher brain. Both the conscious and subconscious are higher brain activities. The sympathetic nervous system controls the heart and brathing. These can occur even when u are unconscious! No thinking happens then.
 
breathing and heart beating are controlled automatically by that section at the bottom of your brain(cant remember the name) i wouldnt really consider it thinking because even subconcious thinking can be controlled, yet we cant stop our hearts from beating
 
I was told in biology that the autonomic functions were a form of thinking that me may or may not have control of. We can control our breathing if we want to, but trying to control our heartbeat is almost impossible (for me anyway).

There are still impulses that create these movements. Theoretically, and charge or exchange of molecules would create sound, however minute.
 
From meditation and studying my thought process I can say that their is a relation between awareness of breath and the mock speach form of thought. Most of my thinking is in the mock speach form of thought. I believe that a part of my brain that was first assigned to awareness of my own breath later became the part of my brain that is aware of my thoughts.

When I fall asleep my thinking does not stop but I lose interest in my thinking and I stop filing my thoughts and everything else in my time referenced memory model of reality and therefore I have no memory of the thoughts that happened while I slept.

The unconscious patterns of breath seem to express or be controled by the internal emotional state. The style and topics of thought also seem to express or be controled by the emotional state.

While I am consciously aware of my breath I do not seem to be capable of thought. The mock speach form of thought is silent halucinated sound words that express ideas that tend to be repetions of or small variations on thoughts that I have had previously. I can find no mechanistic explanation for where the original or intuitive ideas come from.

But your (quigly) interest is in the physical energy of thoughts. We can measure the changing elctromagnetic fields related to mental activity. Changing electromagnetic fields implys energy. So our thoughts are a byproduct of energy or energy is a byproduct of thoughts or thoughts and energy related byproducts of something else. "Emit energy", what are you thinking, psychic soul to soul energy. We could call the deeds that humans do when they are inspired by somebody elses thoughts the proof that thoughts emit energy. Go feel a sports stadium when the home team scores and you will see that you can feel the emotions of other people. Thoughts or the probably emit psychic energy of a type that science does not yet have any knowledge of; but this type of energy when comming from one other person is not a very powerful force in the short term.

Sound means wave forms of matter oscillating in time and space. Mock speach thoughts are not sound;they are only halucinations of sound, unless you talk to yourself.
 
This is somewhat unrelated, (and I REALLY wish I could remember a name or anything so I could find a link) but...

There are experiments taking place (and they have had some impressive success) with a sub-sonic microphone that attaches to the base of the throat (mainly for people who are mute, but do have vocal chords).
Apparently, when people read to themselves (and during certain types of conscious thought that people can be trained to practice) their brain sends the signals to their vocal chords regardless of whether or not they are actually speaking.
These microphones are tunred to pick up the involutntary subsonic vibrations of the vocal chords and amplified.
I heard it working, and it is quite a bit more clear and understandable than you might imagine.
 
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