Study Reveals Brain Processes Short Sentences as Fast as Images

New research from NYU suggests the human brain can rapidly comprehend sentence structures in milliseconds, akin to visual scene recognition.

Researchers at New York University found that the brain can detect basic sentence structures in approximately 130 milliseconds.
This rapid processing speed is comparable to the time it takes to recognize a visual scene.
The study used brain scans to observe how participants processed grammatical sentences versus unstructured word lists.
Results showed faster and more accurate comprehension for sentences with clear subject-verb-object structures.
The findings could influence the design of digital media and advertising by leveraging the brain's ability to quickly grasp sentence structures.