Sound engineers are trying to figure out how people can focus in a single speaker while tuning out other talkers in a t crowded, noisy room. This is known as the "cocktail party effect."
"Watching" the brain in action with fMRI machines reveals that the representation of speech in the cortex does not reflect the entire external acoustic environment but instead just what we really want or need to hear.
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At our Dreamland Festival in May, one of the main things we’re going to investigate are the mysterious sounds that are being heard all around the world (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show and they get 10% off Festival tickets too!)
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Why did ancient peoples, without modern construction equipment, struggle so hard to build huge monuments? These monumental structures are found all over the world, from Easter Island to the pyramids of Egypt. Recent research suggests that they all have a common characteristic: they may have been specially designed to conduct and manipulate sound to produce certain sensory effects.read more
Why do we like the kinds of music we do? It could have to do with our brains (as well as the shape of our ears). We all love the sights and sounds of Christmas, but there are some noises that are hard to take, like SQUEEEK! The sound of fingernails on a chalkboard sets our teeth on edge, but it’s easier to take if we think it’s music. This may explain why certain songs can sound like raucous noise to one person but seem musical to someone else.
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