How do our brains process speech?

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Gareth Gaskell |

TED-Ed

• July 2020

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].