What is happening in your brain when there’s a word on the tip of your tongue?

Question

What is happening in your brain when there’s a word on the tip of your tongue?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The technical name is lethologica. There are multiple explanations, but the brain is complex and none of them have ever been fully proven enough to become the theory.

One is by remembering the features of the word stronger than the word itself your brain is unable to retrieve the actual word. Instead it recalls things like how long it is and what sounds are in the word.

Another is that the memory isn’t strong enough so your brain remembers the memory is there but can’t get a hold of it, so to speak.

And there are many many others.