Person Born Profoundly Deaf Explains What They Hear Inside Their Head

A person who was born profoundly deaf has explained what they hear in their head when they're thinking and dreaming.

In a Reddit discussion on the topic, thousands of people commented to explain what they actually hear in their head, despite their varying levels of hearing ability.

The results varied, usually based around whether the person was born deaf or not, and some even said that they can think in sign language.

However, one person who is profoundly deaf joined the conversation to discuss what they hear inside their mind, having only been able to hear for a few years after being born without the use of their ears.

They explained: "Before I got surgery for my cochlear implant/before learning ASL, I don't exactly recall knowing about any 'mental functionalities' like using a thinking voice.

"Most of my mental uses were re-imagining images in visual thoughts (if I wanted a hotdog, I'd visualise a hotdog).

"Besides that, my dreams were like silent films (and 95% still often are silent even after my surgery to help me hear).

"After that and being able to hear for some years, at some point, I developed an 'inner voice' which just... doesn't have any clear vocal sound to it?

"Yet, at the same time, kind... of... does? Kinda weird/hard to explain.

"It's a jump between 'muffled 'speaking' sound as I think' and 'hollow echoes' for my normal thinking voice, and when I read fiction with characters, for those who have pre-set voiced I re-imagine them in my head as to how they would act it out and it would 'sound' just like the tone I'd hear from the media they're from.

"For the stories that aren't adapted into any audio format, I make them up in my head and try to make them sound distinct if I felt like it, haha."

They continued: "My friends (non-CI) have told me they either don't mentally see/'hear' anything at all and have no idea [of] the concept I'm trying to explain or they visualise floating hands signing to them in their mind space.

"I don't think in the latter at all, except when there are signs I'm trying to remember/reference."

Interestingly enough, the user then went on to explain how they can sometimes even dream with subtitles, which is absolutely fascinating.

They added: "I sometimes dream them with semi-transparent CC/subtitles hovering what I'm seeing (sometimes at the bottom or near people's heads like in some video games just without the speech bubbles)."

"Or none at all, but my dreaming brain 'narrates' my dreams to me, telling me info somehow? Idk if that's a deaf thing though.

"But I've always found how I dream kind of fascinating.

"The very rare sounds I 'hear' in my dreams is kind of hard to explain as well, I can't tell if they were close to authentic [to a deaf person with hearing] that my brain produced for my dream or just my brain trying to 'reimagine' the sound in my mental voice while I dream?

"But it felt like there was legit real sound to it, but on the disorienting/surreal side."

Seriously interesting stuff.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels

Topics: Science, Interesting, Health

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim