Small speech timing habits—such as silent pauses, “um” and “uh,” and difficulty finding words—were associated with performance on standard executive-function tests in a study by researchers at Baycrest, the University of Toronto and York University.
In the study, participants were shown detailed images and asked to describe them in their own words while their speech was recorded. They also completed established tests designed to measure executive function.
Researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze the recordings, identifying hundreds of subtle features in speech timing and fluency, including the length and frequency of pauses, the use of filler words such as “um” and “uh,” and other timing-related patterns. Those speech features predicted how well participants performed on executive-function tests even after the analysis adjusted for age, sex and education.
The researchers said executive function tends to weaken with age and can be affected early in dementia, while traditional cognitive testing can be time-consuming and harder to repeat frequently because of practice effects. They argued that speech-based assessment could eventually provide a simpler, repeatable way to monitor cognitive changes, though they emphasized that longer-term studies tracking people over time are needed before such tools can be used to distinguish normal aging from early disease.
