How do our brains process speech? - Gareth Gaskell episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 30, 2026 · 6 MIN

How do our brains process speech? - Gareth Gaskell

from TED-Ed · host TED-Ed

Learn how to identify, develop, and share your best ideas with TED Masterclass: http://bit.ly/tedmasterclass -- 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.Lesson by Gareth Gaskell, directed by Art Shot.Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletterSupport us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreonFollow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebookFind us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitterPeep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagramView full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-our-brains-process-speech-gareth-gaskellThank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Sydney Evans, Latora Slydell, Oyuntsengel Tseyen-Oidov, Noel Situ, Elliot Poulin, emily lam, Juan, Jordan Tang, Kent Logan, Alexandra Panzer, Laura Cameron Keith, Jen, Ellen Spertus, Cailin Ramsey, Markus Goldhacker, Leora Allen, Andras Radnothy, Chris, Arpita Singh, Vijayalakshmi, Marc Bilodeau, Peng, Tzu-Hsiang, paul g mohney, Maya Toll, Sebastian Regez, Bruno Hannud, Andreas Voltios, Shubham Arora, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Akinola Emmanuel, Kyanta Yap, Ricardo Rendon Cepeda, Ana Maria, Benjamin & Shannon Pinder, Ernest Chow, Bela Namyslik, Alan Froese, Anika Westburg, Nick Cozby, Shawar Khan, Michael Braun-Boghos, Rohan Gupta, Elizabeth Cruz, Yujing Jiang, Sarah Lundegaard, Vladimir Ivanchenko, Georg Gusewski, Rohit Lodha, Erica Zhuang and Aaron Henson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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How do our brains process speech? - Gareth Gaskell

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