This speech pattern is a clear indicator that a person is in cognitive decline

By Eric Ralls – earth.com

Imagine chatting over coffee with your grandmother when she pauses mid-sentence and mutters, “Oh, what’s the word I’m looking for?” That familiar snag – scientists call it word-finding difficulty (WFD) – often arrives long before gray hair or reading glasses. It can feel trivial, yet it quietly hints at how the brain ages.

Those hesitations pop up everywhere, from grocery aisles to family reunions. They even slip into laboratory tasks designed to stress-test language.