If you’ve ever been in an argument over what you thought you heard someone else say, the results of a recent study should come as no surprise.
They suggest that when you hear something, it may not sound the same to me.
From Scientific American Mind & Brain:
…Scientists at the University of Oxford are trying to understand how the ears and the brain work together. They fit ferrets with auditory implants, trained them to respond to sound, and then looked at the way their neurons reacted. It turns out that each ferret’s neurons in the auditory cortex responded to changes in gradual differences in sound but each ferret responded differently.
The researchers say this is applicable to humans. They say this means that our brains are wired to process sounds depending on how our ears deliver that sound. So if you suddenly heard the world through my ears, it might sound quite different.
This explains a lot…
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February 5th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
As a musician-turned-mediator, I thank you for coming across this gem and sharing it with the world!
My musician hubby is pretty psyched too.