EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams • Hacker News Board

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#161

Post by embedding-shape » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC

ghurtado wrote: post #135

dfgsdfgfgd wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds a bit of musicians tracking rhythm. You can somehow feel a beat after a bit practice even when not directly paying attention to it and it's not too hard to associate it with an increasing counter (somehow). It sounds hard, but it is quite doable.

> You can somehow feel a beat If you play in an orchestra, you might have the visual memory of the conductor and their time signature motions helping you along. The somewhat jarring tick tock of a digital metronome can also be encoded into a sort of background track that plays more or less automatically in your head.

> If you play in an orchestra, you might have the visual memory of the conductor and their time signature motions helping you along.

Or on the other side of the spectrum, most DJs learn to "feel" beat counting and phrases, more or less by feeling. After a while, your head kind of goes "1,2,3,4" by itself, and the phrases of the songs "feels" like they're about to come, then they come.

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#162

Post by 486sx33 » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC

dfgsdfgfgd wrote: post #122

shortercode wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I experimented a bit with this when my daughter was younger. I used to walk around the room with her in my arms singing to get her to sleep. To ensure she would be settled I would then count 300 steps before putting her in the cot. I discovered I could count and sing at the same time by visualising the number in my head, instead of using my inner monologue. But it requires more focus to maintain. Thankfu…

It reminds a bit of musicians tracking rhythm. You can somehow feel a beat after a bit practice even when not directly paying attention to it and it's not too hard to associate it with an increasing counter (somehow). It sounds hard, but it is quite doable.

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Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#163

Post by 486sx33 » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 7:46 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #142

inigyou wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read by imagining a voice saying the words. Is that not how everyone reads?

No, and this is one of the first things that tends to come up in any guides on how to read more quickly: reading without internally vocalizing, in order to not limit reading to the speed of vocalizing. Some people can switch back and forth between both readily, and use them for different purposes. Some people read only in one or the other mode.

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Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#164

Post by _doctor_love » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 8:05 PM UTC

Stuff like this is what makes me not worry about AI overtaking humanity. The human brain + mind is so sophisticated, we have no idea what untapped potential still remains.

And anecdotally, this headline feels like it's confirming something already well-known. I once did a presentation for a software team visiting the US from South Korea and their translator was real-time translating my words into Korean for them. The translator had an earpiece in and so did the clients. Once I adjusted to it, it became very natural to present and interact this way (but it was certainly weird at first).

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#165

Post by robocat » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

invictati wrote: post #149

vegavis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has everything to do with the fact we have two brains. The left and right brain (more specifically the left and right hemispheres of the Cerebral Cortex) hold different functions cognitively, control the motor movements of the opposite sides of the body, and communicate thru the Corpus Callosum. Your full consciousness, or thought, is almost like a 'stream' created at this meeting point of the two brains where t…

Fun fact, the Zizian AI murder cult is similarly obsessed with the idea of two hemispheres being separate brains. They also believe gender dysphoria is a trait present or absent within each hemisphere. Their long term goal was to abolish sleep by making one hemisphere of their brains sleep at a time, leaving the other to be awake. Supposedly this would allow them to work more and have more sex. In reality, they all s…

> don't mess with your sleep or you might start a murder cult

Or: don't select members that are really into bicameral mind ideas

In my extremely limited experience, some crazies are into split brain thinking, and some crazies have symptoms of split brains

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#166

Post by alkyon » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

tgv wrote: post #80

alkyon wrote: post #52

The same is true for music, otherwise canons and polyphony wouldn't work.

That's not a good argument. First, music is not speech. It doesn't require linguistic processing. Second, you can hear chords instead of individual voices, so polyphony can be perceived as shifting harmony, and it usually is.

It's incorrect to reduce polyphony to just shifting harmonies. Harmony is of course the constraint but the whole point is about intertwined voices - various melodies that your brain can process simultaneously. Music is not speech, but it's not that far from the language as it seems in terms of processing. When you hear 2 melodic lines at the same time, you're brain needs to encode them separately, in a similar manner to parallel speech streams.

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#167

Post by iamanllm » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 8:57 PM UTC

NalNezumi wrote: post #70

Related, but this reminds me of the story by Richard Feynman [1] when he practices counting up to 60 seconds in his head, and after many experiments around what he can do simultaneously conclude that he can simultaneously count and read but not speak. Later sharing this to John Tukey, he's told that Tukey can't read while counting but could speak while counting. Turns out Tukey is visualizing looking at a tape, while…

i wish i could do syntax highlighting in my head

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#168

Post by keeganpoppen » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

dfgsdfgfgd wrote: post #122

shortercode wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I experimented a bit with this when my daughter was younger. I used to walk around the room with her in my arms singing to get her to sleep. To ensure she would be settled I would then count 300 steps before putting her in the cot. I discovered I could count and sing at the same time by visualising the number in my head, instead of using my inner monologue. But it requires more focus to maintain. Thankfu…

It reminds a bit of musicians tracking rhythm. You can somehow feel a beat after a bit practice even when not directly paying attention to it and it's not too hard to associate it with an increasing counter (somehow). It sounds hard, but it is quite doable.

yeah, doesn't the multitasking in this thread feel a little bit like what i imagine playing the drums is like? i've done some low-key drum-playing sorts of musical things in my life, and it was the disconnection point when you genuinely had 2-3 different things to focus on at once that i found my brain to be lacking. i observed the same with piano, but i had much more of a knack for piano, so it was only the rare song that genuinely required tracking three things at once... and those kinds of songs are hard enough for most mortals that people just pin them all as "dw those songs are super hard", when in reality it always felt like that specific skill was the thing that was lacking, and besides rote memorization i never found some way to lick it all the time. when i was really in flow, though, it would be completely effortless. it's bizarre.

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#169

Post by keeganpoppen » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

imzadi wrote: post #99

NalNezumi wrote: post #70

Related, but this reminds me of the story by Richard Feynman [1] when he practices counting up to 60 seconds in his head, and after many experiments around what he can do simultaneously conclude that he can simultaneously count and read but not speak. Later sharing this to John Tukey, he's told that Tukey can't read while counting but could speak while counting. Turns out Tukey is visualizing looking at a tape, while…

I've noticed something similar. I can listen to audiobooks and follow/absorb what is going on without really paying attention, as long as I am not trying to read something. I can't follow an audiobook and read at the same time. This is probably because I subvocalize when I read. I have taken speed reading courses but I don't enjoy reading that way. I like feeling every word as I read.

i can't talk and listen at the same time to save my life, but as an intern at the Idaho State Historical Society a million years ago i did learn how to transcribe in roughly real time typing and listening. funny how those boundaries work-- feels like a "choose two of these three things" sort of... thing. i also don't find that i have the sort of internal narrative/voice in my head in the way that others do, so i would have to imagine that plays a role on some level. not that basically anyone with sufficient time can't learn to transcribe in near real-time-- it's not at all some sort of profound skill-- i was just struck by how quickly i could pick that up compared to other things.

Re: EEG shows brain can simultaneous encode two speech streams

#170

Post by keeganpoppen » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

vegavis wrote: post #128

NalNezumi wrote: post #70

Related, but this reminds me of the story by Richard Feynman [1] when he practices counting up to 60 seconds in his head, and after many experiments around what he can do simultaneously conclude that he can simultaneously count and read but not speak. Later sharing this to John Tukey, he's told that Tukey can't read while counting but could speak while counting. Turns out Tukey is visualizing looking at a tape, while…

This has everything to do with the fact we have two brains. The left and right brain (more specifically the left and right hemispheres of the Cerebral Cortex) hold different functions cognitively, control the motor movements of the opposite sides of the body, and communicate thru the Corpus Callosum. Your full consciousness, or thought, is almost like a 'stream' created at this meeting point of the two brains where t…

it does feel like quite the coincidence that 2 seems like the magic number and we do, in fact, have two hemispheres. i doubt that the processing for any of these tasks falls strictly down the left vs right hemisphere, but i do kind of feel like our consciousness is kinda built on having a sort of internal tick-tock cycle, and we do certain kinds of thinking on tick and others on tock. but that is just armchair introspective dilettante neuroscience-- not to be confused with the actual thing.