What Happens When You Can’t Talk to Yourself?

Your inner monologue is where you tell yourself, "I don't want to get up yet," or "This is a tasty burger."

Aphasia from Ancient Greek means "without speech." Typically aphasia occurs after a stroke. Reduced blood flow or bleeding causes brain cells to start dying, but the neural transmitters signal the brain's neurons to keep firing, even as they starve from lack of oxygen. Any brain cells killed during this time can't come back.

The damage of aphasia tends to be in two brain areas, the Broca's area in the posterior left prefrontal cortex, and Wernicke's area, the posterior left temporal cortex.

• In Brocha's aphasia, people have problems with fluency, mixing the order of the words, and ignoring grammar.
• In Wernicke's aphasia, the language becomes confused or even nonsense. It can also limit fluency and word formation.
• Global aphasia describes a severe loss of the ability to communicate or understand language.