How Fast You Talk Reveals a Lot About Your Brain Health

June 24, 2025

How Fast or Slow You Talk Reveals a Lot About Your Brain Health, Science Shows — iStock

In my world, everyone talks loudly and fast, and interrupting and speaking over one another is a normal part of any conversation. But not everyone is like this (and probably can’t stand listening to a dinner party at my house). Some people speak more slowly, clearly articulating their thoughts and taking their time to make their point. We normally chalk this up to culture or upbringing, but science shows that one may be better than the other, since how fast or slow you talk can indicate how strong your cognitive health is.

A study, published in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, looked at the cognitive functioning of 125 healthy adults aged 18 to 85. Researchers from the University of Toronto and Baycrest, an academic health sciences center that specializes in care for older adults, sought to better understand the long-held belief that word-finding difficulty (how long a person takes to find the right words when speaking) is a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia.

To achieve these results, the participants completed the following three assessments, according to a press release:

A picture-naming game, where participants had to answer questions about images while distracting words played in the background
A 60-second description of a complex image, where an AI tool recorded how fast they spoke and how frequently they paused
Standardized tests that evaluate executive function and other mental abilities that are known to decline with age and indicate dementia risk

The researchers observed the following outcomes:

Word-finding speed declined with age
The ability to recognize a picture and recall its name declined with age, but was not associated with poor brain health
The number and length of pauses were not linked to brain health
How quickly participants could name pictures predicted how fast they spoke in general, both of which were connected to executive function

“In other words, it wasn’t pausing to find words that showed the strongest link to brain health, but the speed of speech surrounding pauses,” states the press release.

Additionally, these findings suggest that taking a bit of time to come up with a word is a normal part of aging and perhaps not the big dementia predictor that it has long been considered.

RELATED: “Super-Agers” Who Remember Everything at 80 Have These Things in Common, Research Says.

“Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain,” said Jed Meltzer, PhD, Baycrest’s Canada Research Chair in Interventional Cognitive Neuroscience and the lead author of the study. “This suggests that talking speed should be tested as part of standard cognitive assessments to help clinicians detect cognitive decline faster and help older adults support their brain health as they age.”

However, the scientists acknowledge that further studies examining these trends over several years are needed to confirm if speech speed is definitively a marker of cognitive decline with age.

It should also be noted that the Alzheimer’s Association still considers word-finding difficulty a potential early symptom of the disease.

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Dana Schulz

Dana Schulz is the Deputy Lifestyle Editor at Best Life. She was previously the managing editor of 6sqft, where she oversaw all content related to real estate, apartment living, and the best local things to do. Read more

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Brain Health