I definitely have an inner monologue but my vocal cords don't move when I'm thinking or reading (this is called subvocalization [0]). There is a significant pop

I definitely have an inner monologue but my vocal cords don't move when I'm thinking or reading (this is called subvocalization [0]). There is a significant population of people that don't do it much/at all and you can be taught to suppress it. My internal monologue doesn't seem to be constrained by my speaking speed, which aligns with your experience of being able to think very quickly when suppressing subvocalization. Regarding your worries about people being able to tell: most of the time, the muscle movements involved in subvocalization are so small that they're not possible to see without the aid of machines [1] (though the speaker can often feel them, as you report). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromyography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromyography