The average 20-year-old knows between 27,000 and 52,000 different words. Spoken out loud, most of these words last less than a second. With every word, the brain has a quick decision to make: which of those thousands of options matches the signal? And about 98% of the time, the brain chooses the correct word. How is this possible? Gareth Gaskell digs into the complexities of speech comprehension. [Directed by Art Shot, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Stephen LaRosa]. 

Gareth Gaskell: How do our brains process speech?

How do our brains process speech?

The brain's parallel processing prowess enables it to sift through thousands of words, landing on the right one with 98% accuracy.

New words, rather than cluttering our lexicon, are neatly stored in the hippocampus, integrating with existing knowledge as we sleep.

The brain's ability to process speech involves matching words with a 98% accuracy rate, utilizing a complex neural network.