&gt;<i>I am not so sure how universal this is if it varies between 7ms and 470ms, the article says &quot;there is variation but it&#x27;s minuscule&quot;, to me a two-order of magnitude variation is all but small.</i><p>Only if we are comparing it with itself.<p>If we compare it with the times involved in the general context of speaking (the time to say even a small phrase) the variation is insignificant.