How our Brains Recognize

Sound
Sound Research Project

Jason He Wu - May 4, 2014
#1 HOW OUR BRAINS RECOGNIZE SOUND
Overview
Wonder how sound is "heard" by our brains? Well, it's not as easy to explain as it is to
research about it. When sound is vibrating through the air, it vibrates our eardrums, which
causes a mechanical process in our ears to creates electric pulses that our brains can
understand. This is where the brain uses complex communications between our neurons
(nerve cells in our body) that allows our brain to interpret sound.

How sound is received to the brain
To understand how our ears receive sound, let's understand what sound is. Sounds are
vibrations that travels through the air that causes particles in a medium (i.e. air, water) to
start a chain reaction of the particles. When these vibration travels to the ear, it starts a
mechanical process. The outer ear is like a canal that "catches" sound waves and it helps you
determine the direction of a sound. Once air is "caught", sound will vibrate the eardrum (a
thin, cone-shaped piece of skin) and causes a group of tiny bones called the ossicles to
convert vibrations from the air to vibrating uids. The uids in the cochlea (a spiral cavity of
the inner ear that contains uids) moves, which causes hair cells in the ear to bend and
creates electrical signal to the brain.

#2 HOW OUR BRAINS RECOGNIZE SOUND


How our brains process sound
When sound is converted to electrical pulses, it is sent to the
auditory cortex (part of the brain that processes sound).
Neurons in the auditory cortex are organized according the
frequency of sound they respond best. For example, neurons
on the lower part of the auditory cortex responds best to
lower frequencies; the upper part responds best to higher
frequencies. The pulses of our brains are interpreted in ways
so complex that scientists don't have an answer to just yet.
Furthermore, recent reports suggests that when we hear the
same sound waves, our brains processes them differently,
which causes more confusion to scientists.

How our brains are affected by sound
Did you know that the type of sounds we listen to can cause different emotions? Studies have
shown that this is the case. Electric signals travel throughout the brain and trigger emotions
and stress chemicals, which will impact the development of
new neural pathways in the brain. Music has very interesting
effects. Music can impact the part of the brain that controls
the link between memories and emotions in the medial
prefrontal cortex. Say you listen to a very sad song, your
brain will trigger emotions of sadness because of the sounds
that they create. Also, people who listen to music experience
less pain and lower levels of depression. Now, if you listen to
something very loud like a loud honk, it will activate our
ght or ight response, which might cause adrenaline as an
act to give you that "boost" of aggression, or you could be startled and jump out of your
pants.
#3 HOW OUR BRAINS RECOGNIZE SOUND