Jakarta, goldensamoyed Indonesia
—
The way a person speaks is often considered an unrelated daily habit
health
.
However, research shows that speech patterns, from speaking speed to the length of pauses when speaking, can reflect the condition of a person’s brain function.
These small changes may seem trivial, but they can be early signs of cognitive impairment.
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How to speak describes cognitive conditions
Researchers from the University of Toronto found that speech speed can be an early indicator of decreased brain function such as in Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s itself is a disease that causes a gradual decline in memory, thinking ability and daily activities due to damage to nerve cells in the brain.
Experts call this phenomenon as
lethologica
, namely difficulty remembering or saying certain words.Although anyone can experience this condition, this condition occurs more often with age, especially after 60 years.
In the study, 125 participants aged 18-90 years were asked to describe a scene in detail.They were also shown pictures of everyday objects while listening to audio that could help or interfere with focusing.
For example, when viewing a picture of a broom, the audio may say ‘broom’ to help or ‘mop’ to confuse things for a moment.
The results showed that the faster a person’s natural speaking rate, the faster he or she could complete the next task.
These findings are encouraging
processing speed theory
, which states that the decline in brain function is more related to a slowing of the thought process in general, not just a weakening of memory.
Why are older people slower to speak?
“Older people are much slower than young people in completing various cognitive tasks, such as naming pictures, answering questions, or reading words,” said psychologist Hsi T Wei, quoted from
Science Alert
.
He also added that older people experience pauses more often when speaking, both silent pauses and pauses like ‘uh’ or ‘um’ so that their speaking speed tends to decrease.
This research shows that signs of decreased brain function are not only visible in what someone says, but also in the speed at which they say it.
In 2024, researchers from Stanford University found that longer speech pauses and slower speech rates were associated with higher levels of tau protein.Tau protein is one of the main markers of Alzheimer’s.
Through recording
neuroimaging
in 237 adults without cognitive impairment, it was found that those with a greater tau protein load tended to have slower speech rates, longer pauses between utterances, and more pauses overall.
These findings confirm that speech patterns can be an important indicator in detecting decline in brain function.
Observing small changes such as pauses in speaking or a decrease in speaking rate can help recognize early signs of cognitive impairment early.
(avd/asr)
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