September 12, 2008

Google Logo Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm

Listener Anticipates Speaker's Word Choice

Functional MRI shows the brain in action, anticipating the next word a speaker will say based on context and the first part of the word sound. Steve Mirsky reports

Illustration of a Bohr atom model spinning around the words Science Quickly with various science and medicine related icons around the text

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

While I’m talking, you’re not just passively listening. Your brain is also busy at work, guessing the next word that I will sa…vor before I actually speak it. You thought I was gonna say “say”, didn’t you. Our brains actually consider many possible words—and their meanings—before we’ve heard the final sound of the word in quest…of being understood.

Language comes flying at you at up to five syllables per second. So it was thought that listeners keep pace by anticipating a small subset of all words that the listener is familiar with. Think of how a Google search anticipates words based on the first few letters you type in. But now scientists have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to actually watch the brain consider different words. They report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that you narrow the choices by considering words that begin with the same sound. So if I say, “I tasted the sweetest can…your brain might already be priming itself to hear candy. Or maybe cantaloupe. But not candle. Who needs the Game Show Network? You’re always playing Match Game in your head.

—Steve Mirsky 

60-Second Science is a daily podcast. Subscribe to this Podcast:

RSS | iTunes

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe
Listener Anticipates Speaker's Word Choice