We’ve all been in this situation: we’re chatting with someone, we’re looking for a word, a name, a title, and… nothing! We know we know it, we can almost feel it, but we can’t get it out. This is called having a word “on the tip of your tongue.” It’s a moment that’s both intriguing and frustrating. But what exactly happens in our brains when this happens? Researchers have looked into this question and made some fascinating discoveries.
When we have a word on the tip of our tongue, several parts of our brain start working to try to find this lost word. Imagine a group of people frantically searching through a library looking for a specific book. The brain does something similar, and particular areas take part in this search. Among them, three play an essential role: the anterior cingulate cortex, the prefrontal cortex, and the insula.
The anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex are part of a network involved in cognitive control and play complementary roles when we have a word on the tip of our tongue. The anterior cingulate cortex is like a supervisor. It helps us detect and manage the “conflict” that occurs when we know we know a word but cannot find it.
It’s a bit like an alert that says: “Be careful, I know I know this word!” » For its part, the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in evaluating and verifying the information that comes to mind during word search. It ensures that the elements recovered are those we are looking for. Finally, the insula is a more hidden part of the brain involved in particular in phonological recovery, that is to say in the attempt to access the combinations of sounds that make up words.
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Researchers have used techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see what’s happening in the brain during these moments. We can imagine that these three parts of the brain collaborate to try to find the missing word, like colleagues supporting each other in a difficult investigation.
However, researchers have also observed that this phenomenon becomes more and more common with age. For what ? Because certain parts of the brain, notably the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, tend to atrophy as we age. This means that they become a little less effective. As if, over time, the library in which we look for books becomes a little more disorganized, with less tidy shelves and references that get lost. As a result, finding the “book” or the “word” becomes more difficult.
Studies have also shown that in older people, the insula is less activated when they try to find a word. It’s a bit as if this part of the brain, which should normally put sounds together, is no longer able to do its job as well as before. This explains why “words on the tip of the tongue” are more common with age. The more the insula is affected by aging, the more difficult it becomes to retrieve these words that we know very well.
Despite the increased frequency of words on the tip of the tongue as we age, this phenomenon is completely normal. It’s an integral part of how we operate. This just goes to show that our brains are very complex, and that sometimes processes that seem obvious, like finding a word, are actually the result of the coordinated action of many regions of the brain.
In addition, you should know that there are levers to attenuate these effects of age, for example what we call “cognitive reserve” (a protective factor modulated by intellectual and physical activities or social interactions by example) which helps optimize brain and cognitive aging.
So, the next time you have a word on the tip of your tongue, remember that your brain is racing to find this information. If partial information (certain sounds, an associated word, etc.) comes to mind, this invites you to continue searching to find this word that is escaping you. And if the word is slow in coming, you should not hesitate to take a break to try again later “at peace of mind”. All this reflects the complexity and efficiency of our brain!
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