Just in case it's interesting to anyone: As far as I can tell, the internal 'talking' I do when counting in my head (I was unable to disable it, though I could

Just in case it's interesting to anyone: As far as I can tell, the internal 'talking' I do when counting in my head (I was unable to disable it, though I could tap numbers on my fingers without talking just fine) is like a 'test activation' of my speech muscles. The same way you can.. Imagine moving an arm, say, and it feels like it involves a communication with the muscles in your arm but they don't actually fire. Counting feels like it's imagining activating the muscles to say the words for the numbers, without actually doing it.