How speech patterns evolve could predict cognitive decline, Canadian research team suggests – CTV
November 16, 2025
Natural speech patterns could predict a decline in cognitive function and may even point to early signs of dementia, a new study suggests.
Published on Wednesday, the research from Baycrest Hospital, the University of Toronto and York University underscored how speech patterns in aging adults, including long pauses, excessive use of filler words and difficulty finding what to say could signify deteriorating brain health.
Jed Meltzer, senior author of the study, told CTV News on Thursday that the research began from his interest in “the idea that changes in a person’s speech can reveal when they are experiencing a decline in brain health.”
The study featured two cognitive assessment experiments – one in 2019, the other in 2023 – which compared the executive function and speech characteristics of the participants. The first study saw 67 healthy adults aged 65–75, while the second one had 174 healthy adults aged 18–90.
“We gave people standard tests of mental ability,” Meltzer said in a Zoom interview, which included colour-word interference tasks. They also recorded the patients describing complex photos of mundane life scenarios in their own words.
