Almost everyone has an internal monologue -- that little
voice inside your head which puts thoughts into words, but words that
only you can “hear.” And it’s probably better that no one else can hear
these often passing thoughts, as we tend to self-censor before those
ideas become words which fly out of or out mouths or pens. Or, in other
words: We can’t read each other’s minds -- and that’s probably a good
thing.
But it may change. Somewhat.
When we think in words, our bodies get ready to speak. At times --
particularly when we’re reading, although hardly limited to that event --
this manifests itself in something called “subvocalization.” This mental prep
manifests in our throats; as the Guardian notes, “inner speech is accompanied by tiny
muscular movements in the larynx.” Those muscle movements are the first
steps toward turning some of our thoughts into words, and
importantly, they happen even if those thoughts are never carried
further. If you can hear the words in your head, someone else can also
see those very same words in your throat.
This isn’t a new discovery; we’ve known about this for a bit more than a
century. Practically, though, there isn’t a lot we can do with these
teeny-tiny movements. They’re hardly visible to the naked eye, and
monitoring these movements requires that you have all sorts of sensors
and doodads placed on your throat. Further, the tiny tremors created in
one’s larynx by subvocalization aren’t complete sounds; it would require
a lot of data to map these movements to comprehendible words or
thoughts.
At least for now. Just ask NASA.
In 2004, the American space agency issued a press release describing
their efforts to turn tiny throat movements into recognizable words.
First, the space agency created “small, button-sized sensors” to be
placed on the necks and under the chins of a willing group of
participants. (Here's a picture.) Then, the test subjects
were asked to say, to themselves and only in their minds, a handful of
words: "stop," "go," "left,"
"right," "alpha" and "omega," and the
numbers "zero" through "nine." The NASA software
recorded the throat movements as those words were thought, creating
a database
against which it could track future movements. It worked;
per the press release, "initial word recognition results were an
average of 92 percent accurate."
The translations are, for the most part, basic, but that
is something that further trials should be able to improve upon -- you
just need to spend more time mapping more and more sounds. The larger
leap, for now, is whether we can gather that information from a distance,
without having to put sensors on the throats of those whose
subvocalizations we aim to detect. NASA, per the same press release, was
"testing new, 'noncontact' sensors that can read muscle signals even
through a layer of clothing." To date, those haven't been successful
-- and that may be for the better.
Bonus fact: One occupation which could benefit from translating
subvocalizations into communications? Actors, at least if you take the advice
of Brian Cranston. Cranston -- best known for his roles as Walter White in
Breaking Bad and Hal (the dad) in Malcolm in the Middle -- also played Lyndon
B. Johnson in the Broadway production of All the Way. In order to protect his
voice, he took the advice of another Broadway actor, Audra McDonald. He explained that advice to NPR:
[McDonald] was
starting to feel the strain on her vocal chords, and her ear, nose and throat
doctor said I recommend strongly, in fact I'm telling you, to shut down on your
one day off. Don't talk at all. And so she incorporated Mondays as her silent
day. And I thought as a pre-emptive strike, I'm going to do the same.
Instead, one day a week, Cranston carried
"little notepads and a whiteboard" with him, writing notes instead of
speaking. (And yes, one of the notepads had a pre-written explanation as to why
he was doing this.)
From the Archives: Alone in the Ocean: What if no one else could
hear you speak? That's the fate of one unique whale, which speaks at a
frequency well above the normal range of its species.
CRS report via FAS – U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Recent Conflicts, Barbara Salazar Torreon, Senior Research Librarian. October 11, 2017.
“Many wars or conflicts in U.S. history have federally designated “periods of war,” dates marking their beginning and ending. These dates are important for qualification for certain veterans’ pension or disability benefits. Confusion can occur because beginning and ending dates for “periods of war” in many nonofficial sources are often different from those given in treaties and other official sources of information, and armistice dates can be confused with termination dates. This report lists the beginning and ending dates for “periods of war” found in Title 38 of the Code of Federal Regulations, dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It also lists and differentiates other beginning dates given in declarations of war, as well as termination of hostilities dates and armistice and ending dates given in proclamations, laws, or treaties. The dates for the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are included along with the official end date for Operation New Dawn in Iraq on December 15, 2011, and Operation Enduring Freedom on Afghanistan on December 28, 2014. This report will be updated when events warrant.”
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