Inner speech and conscious experience

Imagine that scientists have been successful at designing a drug that " freezes " brain areas producing our internal monologue. After taking the drug you can't talk to yourself anymore. Every other mental activity is fine, but it's now total silence in your head. Not a word. What would happen? What would it be like? Of course, such a pharmacological agent doesn't exist. Actually, we don't need it. Some unfortunate people suffer from brain damage that selectively interrupts inner speech. It's as if they were under the influence of this imaginary drug. Scott Moss, a psychologist who was victim of a stroke, lost the ability to use language. He was able to recuperate and related his experience: " I had lost the ability to converse with others … and to engage in self-talk. In other words, I did not have the ability to think about the future—to worry, to anticipate or perceive it—at least n ot with words. Thus for the first four or five weeks after hospitalization I simply existed. "