what explains the phenomenon where a words starts to sound weird after you say it a bunch, or like a nose starts to look odd if you really look at it, when most of the time you notice anything abnormal?

Question

what explains the phenomenon where a words starts to sound weird after you say it a bunch, or like a nose starts to look odd if you really look at it, when most of the time you notice anything abnormal?

In: 2

Answer 1

This is called “semantic satiation”.

From Wikipedia’s article on the subject:

*An explanation for the phenomenon is that, in the cortex, verbal repetition repeatedly arouses a specific neural pattern that corresponds to the meaning of the word. Rapid repetition makes both the peripheral sensorimotor activity and central neural activation fire repeatedly. This is known to cause reactive inhibition, hence a reduction in the intensity of the activity with each repetition.*

So, LY5: the repetition tires out the brain, like exercising a muscle makes it tired.