The Sound Space of the Brain
My son Charlie’s responses to sounds are varied and inconsistent. It always takes him some days or even weeks to get used to the voice of a new person, and I’m never quite sure how much of a conversation he might be hearing, or even to what unfamiliar noises on the street or in a store he hears, especially when the sounds are unexpected.
Researchers are identifying what part of the brain is responsible for auditory processing. Earlier studies have suggested that a region called the planum temporale (”located above and behind the auditory cortex,” notes Scientific American) is where sounds are localized in space; it was thought that this region of the brain was only responsible for intentional processing of sound (see Science Daily). A new study published in Neuron
shows that the planum temporale activates automatically when there is noise, even if a person is not anticipating it. For instance, it will jump into action if a phone rings in the bedroom when you are watching TV in the living room. (Scientific American)
That is, as Leon Deouell, a cognitive neuroscientist at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a co-author of the study, says, “‘It was important in my view to show that the planum temporale does its job even ‘behind the scenes’ when you don’t intend to listen or localize.’” Listening is happening even when we aren’t trying to listen.
Whatever his outward response, I think it best to presume that Charlie hears everything around him; it’s the processing of so many sounds that takes time. I’m certainly glad to wait and listen.
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POSTED IN: Neuroscience, Sensory
1 opinion for The Sound Space of the Brain
Joe
Sep 25, 2007 at 12:36 pm
If he’s like me at all then yes he hears EVERYTHING.
The hard part is that there is no filter. I hear it all, I can’t tune out the unimportant background noise that I don’t need to pay attention to. This often slows down responding, as I have to sort through all of it and figure out what I need to respond to and what I need to ignore all the time. It is nice when I need to listen to more than one thing at once, because I can hear both at once (my wife is often puzzled about how I can watch TV and talk with someone at the same time and know what’s happening on the TV and know what’s being discussed at the same time, even if I’m slow to respond in the conversation.)
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