As we get older, a lot of us notice it takes a bit longer to come up with the right words—or you might mix up languages if you happen to be a polyglot. Since this is so common, it often makes people worry about their mental sharpness or the possibility of dementia. However, new research from Baycrest Hospital and the University of Toronto may have found that we should be putting special attention to other part of our speech; not pattern, but overall discourse spped.
Yes, although it might sound peculiar, both linguists and neurologists discovered that general talking speed says more about a person’s cognitive condition than bumpy moments when an interlocutor gets stuck trying to find the exact word they were looking ford. This insight changes how we look at getting older, showing that a slower speaking pace might be a warning sign for the brain…while blanking on a specific word is likely just a standard part of aging.
Apparently, blanking on a specific work—no matter how many times you may have it on the tip of your tongue—might result part of normal aging. However, seeing an individual drag their sentences, or just spend more time formulating their delivery, might be a clearer indicator of their cognitive state than it was previously thought of before.
Natural aging vs. cognitive decline in speaking speed
The drive for this research came from a need to tell the difference between typical aging and the first signs of conditions like dementia. In the past, studies mainly looked at the struggle to find words as a possible warning for slipping mental sharpness.
This time, though, the goal was to find out if other parts of how we talk could give a clearer picture of our mental fitness as the years go by.
To figure this out, the team got 125 healthy people, aged 18 to 90, to try some fresh tests aimed at checking their thinking skills and the way they speak. The volunteers played a game where they had to name objects in pictures while tuning out distractions that didn’t matter.
Next, they had to describe detailed images, while their speech was recorded and run through smart software to check their pacing and pauses. The last piece of the puzzle involved standard exams to measure executive function, which covers the mental tools we use to stay focused, manage time, and multitask.
Just as the team predicted, some thinking skills and speaking habits naturally dipped with age. To be specific, the volunteers took longer to name the images shown to them during the game. This slowdown lined up perfectly with what earlier studies have said about the brain taking longer to process things as we get older.
Other findings during this study
But the biggest discovery here was spotting the difference between struggling to find a word and how fast someone actually talks when it comes to brain health. The team uncovered a strong connection between how fast people spoke and their executive function.
These mental skills, which cover things like staying focused and dealing with clashing information, matched up perfectly with how fast the volunteers named pictures and their general speaking pace. It was interesting to see that how often people paused to hunt for a word—or how long they stalled—didn’t actually track with mental decline.
This hints that struggling to grab a specific word now and then, which worries a lot of older folks, doesn’t always mean there are serious brain problems. Instead, simply talking slower in general—outside of those pauses—stood out as a much bigger clue regarding changes in brain health.
How to use this knowledge to our advantage
Scientists are making the case that speaking speed deserves to be checked just like a standard vital sign for the mind. Currently, most routine tests prioritize accuracy, focusing on things like getting the names of objects right.
The authors propose that measuring reaction time during picture naming might catch early signs better than checking for errors, especially since popular tools like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment usually overlook how long it takes to find a word in favor of checking if it is correct.
For families, the takeaway here is that there is no need to jump in every time a loved one has a “what’s that word” moment.