200 milliseconds elapse from when an idea appears in the brain until it is transformed into words , according to research carried out by the Pompeu Fabra University and the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona.
With this mental speed, a human being is able to say a few words t res per second and only wrong about one in a thousand. On the other hand, it is estimated that an average Spaniard knows about 1,000 to 5,000 words, from which they have to choose the ones they will utter when speaking. "The mental lexicon is a structure (network) found in the brain where all the words we know are stored; it is like a dictionary inside our brain where we look for those words that correspond to the message we want to express", explains Albert Costa, co-author of the study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
To obtain these results, the scientists analyzed the brain electrical activity of 25 subjects. According to Costa, although from when a person sees a drawing until he opens his mouth to name what he sees, 700 milliseconds elapse, but the time elapsed from when the mental image of the concept is formed until he finds the word to name it is only 200 milliseconds .
