A recent study has shown that the human brain is capable of detecting the linguistic structure of a short sentence in just 130 milliseconds, approximately the duration of a blink. The research results, published in the journal Science Advances, suggest that the brain's language processing ability is much faster than previously thought, equating in speed to the perception of visual scenes.
The researchers, led by Liina Pylkkänen from New York University, conducted experiments with the participation of 21 women and 4 men. During the tests, the brain activity of participants was measured while they read lists of words that formed complete sentences or isolated words. Using magnetoencephalography, the functional activity of the brain was recorded to identify how linguistic information was processed.
The results revealed that the left temporal cortex of the brain, responsible for language comprehension, takes 130 milliseconds to distinguish between complete sentences and lists of isolated words. This speed in processing suggests that the brain is not only capable of instinctively understanding rapid messages but also of effectively making decisions based on them.
In complementary studies led by Nigel Flowers, also from New York University, it was observed that the brain tends to internally correct grammatical errors in a sentence 400 milliseconds after having seen it. This could explain why readers overlook minor errors when reading, as their brains automatically correct inaccuracies.
In summary, the research points to the fact that the human brain has a remarkable ability to rapidly process linguistic information, detecting the structure of a sentence in an instant and correcting errors almost instantaneously. The findings open up new perspectives on the speed and effectiveness with which our brain processes language compared to other sensory stimuli.
