Brain wiring quiets the voice inside your head.

Brain wiring quiets the voice inside your head. During a normal conversation, your brain is constantly adjusting the volume to soften the sound of your own voice and boost the voices of others in the room. This ability to distinguish between the sounds generated from your own movements and those coming from the outside world is important not only for catching up on water cooler gossip, but also for learning how to speak or play a musical instrument. Now, researchers have developed the first diagram of the brain circuitry that enables this complex interplay between the motor system and the auditory system to occur. The research, which appears in The Journal of Neuroscience, could lend insight into schizophrenia and mood disorders that arise when this circuitry goes awry and individuals hear voices other people do not hear.