Why are knots so difficult to say?

2013/02/28 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia

In a study of the mouth and brain areas involved in the conversation, researchers have seen why we become so easily stuck when it comes to saying the mouth knots. The research has been carried out at the University of California and has been published in the journal Nature.

In fact, the study has been quite limited, since only three people have studied epileptics. In fact, the experiment was conducted within a regular preoperative session. However, the researchers affirm that the conclusions are significant and generalizable.

In fact, the researchers have measured with great precision the activity of the brain (in millimeters and milliseconds), through which they have been able to verify which zones are activated according to the type of sound. For example, they have realized that the brain model changes a lot in terms of consonants or vowels.

According to the researchers, this can explain why they are stuck a few times and not others. Apparently, it is customary to move or exchange two consonants with a similar model (boat tag instead of tote bag). On the contrary, it is very difficult that the same occurs between a vocal and a consonant.

In addition, they have shown that the brain does not coordinate movements according to phonemes, but according to the muscles that move. Thus, they have distinguished three categories of consonants: cutting-edge sounds of the tongue (sa), of the back of the tongue (ga) and of the lips (ma). Vowels have been divided into two groups: those requiring lip rounding and the others (or and a, respectively).

Therefore, it seems that there is the core of the buccal nodes: the models of the same type of sound overlap in the brain and, therefore, they are easily mixed. For example, the brain considers the cutting-edge sounds of the tongue s and sh, and therefore tends to mix them in the oral nodes like Sally sells seashells.

According to the researchers, their work is interesting in the investigation of the speech related control engine.