What part of the brain is the voice inside our head?

If you refer to rational decision-making, planning, and prudence, the most attributed brain region to these functions is the frontal lobe.

Significant evidence has consistently revealed the role of the frontal lobe in controlled thought: particularly, the extremely famous case of Phineas Gage, who had an iron rod through his frontal lobe in 1848. Post-damage, he became irreverent, impulsive, and defiant. Similarly, others who have also obtained frontal lobe injuries have shown impairments in decision-making and impulse control.

Below is an image of Phineas Gage, and the frontal lobe region of skull damage.

The role of the frontal lobe in rational decision-making has further been indicated through neuroimaging studies. In fact, those under the influence of alcohol tend to make poor choices due to inhibition of activity in the frontal lobe. Thus, in that sense, the frontal lobe is the most widely known as corresponding to ‘the voice inside our head’.

However, this is not to say that the frontal lobe is alone. It has suggested to work along with subcortical systems and the reward system; specifically, dopaminergic pathways in the brain.

Footnotes

[1] “No longer Gage”: an iron bar through the head: Early observations of personality change after injury to the prefrontal cortex

[2] Decision-making and impulse control after frontal lobe injuries.

[3] Decision-making and the frontal lobes.

[4] Alcohol consumption and frontal lobe shrinkage: study of 1432 non-alcoholic subjects

[5] ‘To do or not to do’? The neurobiology of decision-making in daily life: I. getting the basics

[6] Dopaminergic pathways - Wikipedia

Reference: Mayuri Vaish