Can you recall a time when you couldn’t think of the name for something? Perhaps it was a familiar object you could picture in your mind. The word was “on the tip of your tongue,” but you just couldn’t name it.
Scientists who study language call this experience the tip of the tongue phenomenon. It happens occasionally to people with healthy brains, and it seems to become more prevalent as a part of healthy aging. The phenomenon is more common and persistent for people with aphasia—a disorder arising from brain damage that affects the production or comprehension of spoken, written or gestured speech. Aphasia affects more than one million people in the U.S., most of whom have suffered a left-hemisphere stroke. Continue Reading