Using Your Fingers Can Make You a Better Listener. Here’s How.

If you’ve ever found yourself nodding along to a conversation you definitely didn’t hear because the environment was a cacophonous mess of sounds powerful enough to drown out even your own thoughts, some researchers have found a simple little trick that can help you focus: rhythmically tap your finger on a surface.

A new study out of France and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that moving your fingers in a steady beat before trying to listen helps your brain decode speech buried under noise. Researchers from Aix-Marseille University, led by psycholinguist Noémie te Rietmolen, conducted experiments on native French speakers involving spoken sentences and varying levels of background chaos.

The test groups had different “priming” rituals before listening: tapping their fingers to their own rhythm, tapping along to a beat, just hearing a beat with no tapping, or doing nothing at all. The Tappers crushed it. People who tapped rhythmically – even briefly – processed speech faster and more accurately than those who sat there, struggling to make heads or tails of a conversation.

Your motor system – the part of your brain responsible for movement – apparently also seems to have some say in your speech processing. It’s not just moving muscles; it’s syncing up with time-based stuff like language and helping your brain cut through the audio clutter.

As the authors explain it, “these findings provide evidence for the functional role of the motor system in processing the temporal dynamics of naturalistic speech.”

Next time you’re on a noisy date, don’t lean in so close that your eardrum is softly caressing their uvula. Instead, casually drum your fingers on the table or bar countertop. Sure, they may think you are impatient or on cocaine, but at least you’ll be able to hang on their every word regardless of the noisy environment.