Words like "um" and "er" tend to have a bad reputation, but a new study suggests that they might actually do listeners a favor.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling in the U.K. measured brain activity to assess listeners' understanding. Im¿mediately after a person hears words, brain activity spikes downward. In the study, the larger the spike, the more difficult it was for the listener to put the words into context.

This article was originally published with the title Something, Um, Unexpected.

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