Buzz
In May 2018, the internet was buzzing with a heated debate: Laurel or Yanny? Some listeners swore they heard one name in the viral audio clip, while others were sure the voice was saying the other. AsapSCIENCE’s recent video, shared by Digg, provides insight into how auditory illusions occur and why hearing isn't as straightforward as it seems.
It turns out that it's quite simple to trick the brain into perceiving a sound that isn’t there. Hearing is fundamentally about how we interpret sounds, and expectations play a significant role. The brain uses context to decode the signals from sound waves hitting your ears. Studies show that when you expect to hear something, the auditory cortex in your brain activates in the same way as it does when you’re actually hearing it.
The brain frequently fills in the blanks where it assumes sound should be, as shown in the video examples. As AsapSCIENCE explains, this phenomenon is known as “temporal induction.” This might include hearing lyrics to Smash Mouth’s “All Star” even when only a piano melody is playing, if you're already familiar with the words. Or it might mean seeing a word on screen and hearing the full word in the audio, even if part of the audio skips a syllable. It can even extend to hearing sound in a completely silent GIF, something many experience when watching an image of a power line swaying.
Curious? Dive deeper in the video below, and then challenge your hearing with these other auditory illusions.
