Tongue twisters. We've all tried them. We've all laughed at each other for trying to repeat one successfully five times fast. But why is it sometimes so hard to say?
There have been research conducted to unravel the mystery our brains hold behind our tongues getting "twisted." Apparently, instead of our friends' failed attempts, what we're really laughing at is our own brain's confusion.
According to "Dailymail" and "Nature", our brain exercises quick control to coordinate our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx for speech. When we try to pronounce these words, the brain sends messages to these muscles that are fairly close to each other. As a result, these signals overlap and cause us to stutter.
Another way to explain this is by muscle movement. According to "Nature", data has revealed that consonants have three categories, "...front-of-the-tongue sounds (such as 'sa'), back-of-the-tongue sounds ('ga') and lip sounds ('ma')." Vowels have two groups, "...those that require rounded lips or not ('oo' versus 'aa')." In this case, articulation gets confusing because "representations in the brain generally overlap."
Studies of our brain and muscles getting "confused" help explain the phenomena inside of us. It's not often that we stop and think about why our bodies react to certain things in a certain way. The reasoning could be quite complex, while in other situations, they're pretty interesting. Together, all the research can help us understand the human race a little better.
A very interesting read! I had no idea the reason why tongue twisters are so difficult had to do with the way our brain "signals overlap." Also, the fascinating post addressed a topic I had never even considered before; I'd never questioned the "why" behind tongue twisters and this makes me want to research some other human brain confusion phenomenas.
ReplyDelete