How is it that people can "hear" a person's voice in their head just by thinking about it?

Question

Anyone can think about any close friends or family and hear the way they speak in their head. We can make them say anything they want, and when you hear their voice in your head, it sounds the way it sounds when it comes from their mouth, same accent, same pitch, etc. So how is this possible?

Answer 1

Memories are saved as neural pathways in the brain. This includes memories of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and even tactile sensations. Accessing these neural pathways, in other words calling to mind memories, results in the "reexperiencing" of the sensations connected with the original experience, not in an actual physical sense, but in the sense of reactivating the same neural activity that constituted the neural reaction to the original event. Therefore it "feels" like we can see, hear, smell, taste what we experienced in the original event. Remember, the operation of such senses is really a function of the brain. We don't really "see" with our eyes, "smell" with our noses, or "hear" with our ears. These sensory organs simply transmit nerve impulses to the brain, but until the brain interprets and processes those impulses there is no sensation of sight or sound or odor. Once the brain has collected and processed these impulses however, it can store the sensory images and access them later.

Answer 2

You don't really hear it in your head, you only think you do.

Answer 3

memory