The document discusses the neurobiology behind the remarkable skill of high school debaters who can speak at over 250 words per minute, which is nearly double the normal speech rate. It explores the complex neural regions and processes involved in speech production, including Broca's area, Wernicke's area, motor neurons, and right hemisphere involvement. It suggests debaters have highly familiar materials allowing pre-packaged motor sequences, faster processing speeds to rapidly transition between thinking and speaking, and possibly thicker myelin sheaths to facilitate faster neural processing. Their speech also exhibits little prosody or emotion, likely due to minimal right hemisphere involvement or control over its typical contributions to speech.

1. The Neurobiology of
High Speed High School Debate
Mark Badalamente
Final Project:
Understanding the Brain:
The Neurobiology of Everyday Life
20 July 2014
Image from www.brainhealthcolorado.com

2. Normal human speech is approximately 160 words per
minute.
Top high school debaters clock in at over 250 –
sometimes up to 400 - words per minute.
My son (not the debater in the video on the next slide)
is one of them.
This short presentation explores the neurobiology
behind this remarkable skill.

3. Speech production is extremely complex. It requires,
for example, motor function, intent, emotion,
executive function, auditory function, respiratory
coordination. Over 100 laryngeal, orofacial and
respiratory muscles must be precisely and rapidly
coordinated.
Major neural regions involved:
◦ Left hemisphere:
Wernicke’s Area (speech conceptualization – comprehension and
semantics)
Broca’s Area (speech production, signals to motor neurons)
◦ Right hemisphere – grammar, sentence construction,
prosody (rhythm, inflection, emotion)
◦ Muscle neurons – breath, tongue, jaw, etc.

4. Learning
◦ Debaters quickly gather and read a series of evidence cards to build their
case or refute their opponents. Thus, the materials is very familiar to
them.
◦ Familiarity with the materials suggests a series of well-rehearsed, “pre-
packaged” motor sequences in Broca’s area to facilitate rapid muscle
control necessary for fast speech.
Processing speed
◦ To produce speech at nearly double the normal rate of speech, it is
possible that highly skilled debaters have faster processing speeds in
order to move rapidly from reading an evidence cardtranslation into
auditory generating signalsattaching the desired prosody elements
controlling the requisite muscles to make the desired sounds.
The brain goes from thinking of a word, applying grammar and prosody,
controlling muscles and producing the word as speech in as little as 600
milliseconds. Could the fastest debaters complete the same neural
processing even faster?
Could the neurons involved in speech production have a thicker myelin
sheath in top debaters to allow faster processing?

5. How might right hemisphere involvement
differ in highly skilled debaters to support
fast speech?
◦ When speaking at high speed, debaters show a lack
of affect: their speech is nearly monotone, exhibits
little variation is speed, and almost no inflection.
◦ Facial expressions, as well, reveal little emotional
content.
◦ The lack of prosody could either reflect a minimal
right hemisphere involvement, or, more likely, a
particular ability to control – repress – typical right
hemisphere contributions to speech.

6. Made me think about speech as a neurobiological process.
Helped me see the interplay of speech conceptualization
and muscle control to speech production as highly
interconnected neural processes.
The neural aspects of learning helped me think about how
learned speeches could be spoken faster.
Appreciation of benefits – improved processing speed and
possible collateral effects to other executive functions
Better appreciation for the mechanical nature of fast
debate speech by understanding the different left and
right hemisphere functions.

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