Scientists are claiming they’ve made a significant discovery about the brain and how it processes speech. They say speech comes from both sides of the brain -- not one side, as previously thought, CBS News reports.

They believe their findings could change how doctors treat speech disorders or other speaking difficulties caused by brain damage.

The study, published Jan. 15 in Nature, involved 16 patients with epilepsy who had their brain activity measured while undergoing separate disease treatment.

“We asked the patients to listen and speak to different cues, different words, and then we monitored their brain activity and we found it was present on both sides of their brain in equal ways,” Dr. Bijan Pesaran, an associate professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science and the study's senior author, told CBS News’ Vinita Nair. “It really made no difference what side of the brain we looked at. It was equally strong.”