A coworker I had (a good friend and an _amazing_ engineer) would generally just pause silently and think after a question. It was initially off putting, and I couldn’t tell what was happening, but very quickly got used to it. I started doing it myself, but start with a short “hmm” to indicate that I’m now thinking about the question, or just say “let me think”.
Waiting helps you ignore the impulse responses, and double check if you heard the question correctly, whence you can just ask for clarification.
No one complains about a sorta slow speaker, but a frenetic one is hard to follow and will blurt things out.
