Conversation is generally characterized by smooth transitions between turns, with only very short gaps. This entails that responders often begin planning their response before the ongoing turn is finished. However, controversy exists about whether they start planning as early as they can, to make sure they respond on time, or as late as possible, to minimize the overlap between comprehension and production planning. Two earlier EEG studies have found neural correlates of response planning (positive ERP and alpha decrease) as soon as listeners could start planning their response, already midway through the current turn. However, in these studies, the questions asked were highly controlled with respect to the position where planning could start (e.g., very early) and required short and easy responses. The present study measured participants' EEG while an experimenter interviewed them in a spontaneous interaction. Coding the questions in the interviews showed that, under these natural circumstances, listeners can, in principle, start planning a response relatively early, on average after only about one third of the question has passed. Furthermore, ERP results showed a large positivity, interpreted before as an early neural signature of response planning, starting about half a second after the start of the word that allowed listeners to start planning a response. A second neural signature of response planning, an alpha decrease, was not replicated as reliably. In conclusion, listeners appear to start planning their response early during the ongoing turn, also under natural circumstances, presumably in order to keep the gap between turns short and respond on time. These results have several important implications for turn-taking theories, which need to explain how interlocutors deal with the overlap between comprehension and production, how they manage to come in on time, and the sources that lead to variability between conversationalists in the start of planning.

会话通常以转弯之间的平滑过渡为特征，只有很小的间隙。这需要响应者经常在进行中的回合结束之前开始计划响应。但是，关于他们是否尽早开始计划，确保他们及时做出响应或尽可能晚地进行计划以最小化理解和生产计划之间的重叠存在争议。两项早期的EEG研究发现，听众可以在当前回合中途开始计划他们的反应时，就立即做出反应计划的神经相关性（积极的ERP和alpha降低）。然而，在这些研究中，相对于计划可以开始的位置（例如，很早），所提出的问题受到高度控制，并且需要简短而轻松的回答。本研究测量了参与者的 实验者通过自发互动采访他们时的EEG。在访谈中对问题进行编码表明，在这种自然情况下，从原则上讲，听众可以相对较早地开始计划应对措施，平均而言，只有大约三分之一的问题已通过。此外，ERP结果显示出很大的积极性，以前被解释为响应计划的早期神经特征，它在单词开始后大约半秒钟开始，从而使听众可以开始计划响应。响应计划的第二个神经信号（α下降）没有可靠地复制。总而言之，听众似乎也在自然的情况下，在进行中的转弯的早期就开始计划他们的反应，大概是为了使转弯之间的间隔变短并及时做出反应。