Experts Try to Explain 'Tip-of-the-Tongue' Events

Most people have experienced this apparent memory lapse – you try to speak a word that you know it exists, and you know what it means, but you just cannot pronounce it. Your brain no longer seems capable of fixing itself precisely on the word you are looking for, and you spend some time until you finally remember the particular word, phrase or expression. Now, a new scientific study seeks to explain these phenomena, called “tip-of-the-tongue,” by looking at how often we use the words that are most likely to escape our mind when we attempt to remember them.

This investigation may have significant consequences for analyzing the manner in which the human brain organizes and remembers language. Though this is one of the main traits that have allowed us to become the dominant species on this planet, researchers are still largely flying in the dark when it comes to studying this issue. With the advent of modern brain-imaging methods, some progress has been made, but neuroscientists and neurobiologists admit that they still have a long way to go before they can say they understand the phenomenon, LiveScience reports.

The new investigation focused on individuals who could speak at least two languages, as well as on individuals who were deaf, and used the American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with each other, and with others. “We wanted to look at whether we saw a parallel in signers – do they have a tip-of-the-finger state?” said the director of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Laboratory for Language & Cognitive Neuroscience, Karen Emmorey. The study showed that people using ASL to “speak” to others also experienced “tip-of-the-finger”. Additionally, it was found that they exhibited the behavior with about the same frequency as people using spoken language to communicate.

The scientists believe that tip-of-the-tongue/finger may originate in the infrequent use of the words that are more likely to be forgotten. But this issue cannot readily be addressed with forms of therapy, because people cannot be asked to repeat all the words they could use at one point during the day each morning. Basically, the more uncommon a word is in your vocabulary, the more likely you are to forget it when you need it most. Details of the new work were presented on February 19 in San Diego, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).