British Library event

An auditory event to be held at the British Library on 11th October.

“This will be an exciting interactive event where you can hear from
neuroscientists, musicians and experts in speech and hearing for all ages.
Together we will explore how the brain perceives sound, and interprets
speech and music. Have a guided tour of a 'Bionic Ear'; watch a volunteer's
'listening' brain in action; and test your own brain as you try to decipher
a variety of auditory illusions.”

Date: Monday 11 October 2010
Time: 18.30 - 20.30
Location: The British Library, Conference Centre
Tickets are £6/£4 concession – see website:

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event113637.html

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Comments

[David Miller]

This was an interesting talk. One of the presenters played a video clip and then asked the audience whether they heard “baa baa baa” “gaa gaa gaa” or (I think) “daa daa daa”). We did not all hear the same sound. The clip was replayed but we had to shut our eyes. This time we all heard the same sound.

It transpired that the clip had had a different audio track dubbed over it. The demonstration proved that some of us listen with our ears and others with our eyes. By closing our eyes we all heard the same thing.

The next test was to listen to “alien speak”. It sounded like gobbledegook but was simply a human voice which had been synthesised. We were then played the normal voice and then the synthesised version was repeated. The second time around it was easy to understand what was being said. Two further “alien” clips were played and these were also much easier to decipher. It seems that the brain learns very quickly to process new sounds into something understandable.

A further video clip showed how to translate Clanger speak into English!