What’s actually going on in the brain when it processes language? And if words impact the brain differently, are some more powerful than others? Buffer cofounder Leo Widrich delves into what the analysis has to say about this and more.
Here’s a key right off the bat and I wish it isn’t too odd: one of the factors I think about a lot, especially for Buffer copy are words, very easy terms, actually. Should it say “Hi” or “Hey”? Should it be “cheers” or “thanks”? How about “but” or “and”? I’m wondering you might have an identical interest with this. There are many events when [my Buffer partner] Fran and I sit over one line and modify it many times, until we think it really rests right. This is partially to enhance our analytics for basically click rate and others. It’s also to basically create an emotion. The one key query we ask ourselves is: “How does this make you feel?”
Lately, a lot of the traditional paradigms in how our mind processes terminologies were overthrown. There is new and innovative psychology research that made quite stunning and different outcomes. The one research I found most exciting is UCL’s outcomes on how we can separate terms from intonation. Whenever we pay attention to words, this is what happens: “Words are then shunted over to the left temporal lobe [of our brain] for handling, while the intonation is directed to the right part of the mind, an area more triggered by songs.” So our mind uses two different places to recognize the feelings and then the real significance of the terms. On second thought, what still doesn’t quite appear sensible is why we can even differentiate “language” so remarkably from any other appears to be.
The UCL group tried to find out about exactly this. They played conversation sounds and then non-speech sounds that still seemed just like conversation to individuals. While calculating their brain activity, they discovered something fascinating: “Speech was designated for unique treatment near the primary auditory cortex.” In short, our brain can amazingly single out terminology from any other sound and slot it to the right “department” in our mind to provide it significance.