Scientists from the University of Birmingham found that grammatical errors stimulate a physical fight-or-flight response in those who recognize them, and also lead to an increased heart rate. The results of the research were published at: Journal of Neurolinguistics.
41 UK citizens participated in the experiment. All subjects’ native language was English. They listened to 40 samples of English speech, half of which contained grammatical errors. Scientists also tracked fluctuations in heart rates.
The more errors a person hears, the faster their heart rate increases, indicating stress and the fight-or-flight response. This is a condition in which the body takes action to eliminate a threat through aggression or flight. It is interesting that the subjects often did not understand what exactly they did not like in the sentence, as they could not remember the grammatical rule.
The discovery of a connection between the heartbeat and the recording of grammatical errors complements the complex relationship between physiology and cognition and opens new ways to study them, the authors noted.
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