Inner (covert) speech decoding

Attempts to decode language that is generated silently with no articulatory effort at all, the inner monologue. This is attractive because it needs no residual movement and imposes little effort, and it is the only route for users with no volitional motor output whatsoever; but it is much harder, because the signals are weaker, more variable and less clearly localized than attempted-speech signals in motor cortex.

Wandelt et al. (2024) reported decoding of a small inner-speech vocabulary from single-neuron activity in the supramarginal gyrus, a parietal region, suggesting inner speech may be more accessible outside classical motor cortex.