Published in the journal Psychological Science, a study reveals that people who are very gestural have this specific ability.
Speaking with your hands is not just a simple matter of family mimicry or the habit of hurried, impatient or even nervous personalities. It is also not just a trait of psychology but also of neuroscience, according to the study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in the Netherlands. According to their observations published in the journal Psychological Science, people who often use their hands to speak have a specific capacity for anticipation in the brain. This is a strong point.
In a face-to-face conversation, we use speech and gestures to communicate. It’s natural and makes it easier to understand the message we want to convey to others. However, some use gestures more than others. The researchers wanted to know if it was an unconscious way of anticipating what the person was going to say and having a sort of mental head start. Dutch volunteers listened to questions asked by a virtual avatar. Each question was accompanied by an iconic gesture (e.g., typing) or a meaningless movement (e.g., scratching one’s arm), followed by a brief pause and the target word (e.g., “typing”). The scientists then used EEG (electroencephalogram) headsets to measure their brain activity.
Result: By using their hands, people who are very gestural do not just “decorate” their speech: they activate an anticipation mechanism in their interlocutors which allows them to understand the message even before the words are spoken. The EEG showed a drop in “alpha” and “beta” waves in listeners, just after the gesture. In neuroscience, it is a sign that the brain is in “active prediction” mode. It doesn’t just listen, it preloads the meaning of the word before it’s spoken. Clearly, the hands of the speaker act as scouts, preparing the mental ground for the listener to facilitate reception of the verbal message that will follow.
This study highlights what scientists call multimodal communication (sound+image). Our brain is wired to process language taking these two parameters into account to save time. The use of gestures thus allows the brain to operate more in “predictive” mode. The gestures of very expressive people make it difficult for the interlocutor to understand. Thus, these people are very good communicators, they promote fluid, rapid and effective exchanges. They make themselves understood better and faster.
