Scientists at the University of Rochester have shown for the
first time that our brains automatically consider many possible
words and their meanings before we've even heard the final sound
of the word. Previous theories have proposed that listeners can
only keep pace with the rapid rate of spoken language—up to 5
syllables per second—by anticipating a small subset of all words
known by the listener, much like Google search anticipates words
and phrases as you type. This subset consists of all words that
begin with the same sounds, such as "candle", "candy," and
"cantaloupe," and makes the task of understanding the specific
word more efficient than waiting until all the sounds of the
word have been presented. But until now, researchers had no way
to know if the brain also considers the meanings of these
possible words. The new findings are the first time that
scientists, using an MRI scanner, have been able to actually see
this split-second brain activity. The study was a team effort
among former Rochester gr