Have you ever listened to a song and felt like you could hear the singer’s voice even when it wasn’t there? Let’s explore how this fascinating trick works using the song “All Star” by Smash Mouth. Imagine a piano playing the song’s melody. If you know the song well, you might start to hear the singer’s voice and lyrics in your mind, even though it’s just piano notes. This happens because the piano notes match the song’s frequency, tricking your brain into filling in the missing parts.
There’s another cool example with a speaking piano. At first, it might be hard to understand what it’s “saying.” But once you see the words on a screen, you can suddenly hear the piano talking. This is because hearing is all about perception. When sound waves reach your ears, they turn into signals for your brain. Your brain uses context and past knowledge to make sense of these signals. That’s why if you’ve never heard the song before, it might just sound like random noise.
Sometimes, we hear things that aren’t there, even without words. For instance, imagine watching a video of a jumping transmission tower. About 20% of people hear a “thud” when it lands, even though there’s no sound. This is called a visually evoked auditory response, a type of synesthesia where your senses get mixed up. Your brain expects to hear a sound because of what you see.
Expectation plays a big role in what we hear. In a 2006 study, participants’ brains were scanned while they expected to hear a sound. Even in silence, their auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sound, was activated as if they were hearing something. This shows how powerful our expectations can be.
Our brains are great at filling in missing information. Listen to an audio clip with a cough interrupting a word. Even though a syllable is missing, your brain fills in the gap, making you hear the complete word. This is called “temporal induction,” where your brain uses context to make sense of incomplete information.
Now, let’s talk about a rhythm that seems to speed up forever. This is known as the “risset rhythm.” It starts slow and gradually speeds up. As it gets faster, a second beat begins at half the speed, and they both increase together. Eventually, the faster beat fades out, and the slower one takes over, creating a loop. Your brain can’t detect the subtle changes, so it sounds like the rhythm is endlessly speeding up.
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Listen to a piano version of a popular song you know well. Close your eyes and focus on the melody. Do you start to “hear” the singer’s voice in your mind? Write down your experience and discuss with your classmates how your brain filled in the missing parts.
Watch a video of a speaking piano without any subtitles. Try to guess what it’s “saying.” Then, watch it again with the words displayed. Discuss how your perception changed and why you think this happened.
Watch a video of a silent object, like a bouncing ball or a jumping tower. Do you “hear” any sounds? Share your experience with the class and explore why some people might hear sounds while others don’t.
Participate in a classroom experiment where you are told to expect a sound, but none is played. Reflect on whether you “heard” anything and discuss how expectation can influence perception.
Listen to a risset rhythm audio clip. Try to identify when the rhythm speeds up and when it slows down. Discuss with your classmates why it feels like the rhythm is endlessly speeding up and how your brain perceives these changes.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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You may recognize the song being played as “All Star” by Smash Mouth, and if you do, something amazing is about to happen. Even though only piano notes are being played, if you know the song, you’ll start to hear the lead singer’s voice and the words being sung. What you’re hearing is 100% digital piano simply matched to the frequency of the original song and not mixed with real vocals, and yet, you can hear the words.
This speaking piano shows a similar phenomenon. It’s hard to make out what it’s saying, but as soon as words are on screen, you begin to hear it talking. Hearing is all about perception; after a sound wave hits your ear, it’s transformed into signals for your brain. However, your brain receives so many external signals that it can’t process them all at once, so it uses context to interpret what you’re hearing. You hear the lyrics because the brain uses information it already has to understand the world around you. This is why, if you’ve never heard the song, it may sound like nonsense.
Even without words, we sometimes hear things that aren’t there. Take this jumping transmission tower, for example. Around 20% of people will actually hear a thud each time it lands in a phenomenon known as visually evoked auditory response. Do you hear it? It’s a type of synesthesia, where the senses like hearing and sight get crossed in the brain.
Expectation also plays a role here. A 2006 study scanned the brains of participants who were told they’d eventually hear a sound. As they listened to silence and expected to hear something, the auditory cortex was activated in the same way as when they were actually listening to sound. So, do you hear it now?
Our brains are quite adept at filling in the gaps, as demonstrated in this audio clip. Now, listen to it with the cough removed. There’s literally a full syllable missing, but with the cough, people tend to hear the entire word. This illusion is known as “temporal induction.” Your brain fills in information to make sense of the world.
Now, listen to this rhythm. It sounds like it’s getting faster, doesn’t it? The thing is, it will seemingly get faster forever if I let it continue to play. This is known as the “risset rhythm,” in which a beat starts relatively slow and begins to speed up. As it gets faster, the second beat starts at exactly half the speed, and they increase in speed together. Eventually, the faster one fades out as the slower one fades in, and the loop continues. However, your brain can’t pick up the subtlety, and as a result, it sounds like it’s speeding up forever.
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This version maintains the original content while removing any informal language and ensuring clarity.
Trick – A clever or skillful action or scheme intended to deceive or outwit someone or something. – Scientists study how optical illusions can trick the brain into seeing things that aren’t really there.
Brain – The organ inside the skull that controls thought, memory, feelings, and activity. – The brain processes information from our senses to help us understand the world around us.
Sound – Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear. – In science class, we learned how sound waves can travel through different materials.
Perception – The way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. – Our perception of color can change depending on the lighting conditions.
Expectation – A strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. – In psychology, expectation can influence how we perceive and react to different situations.
Rhythm – A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. – The rhythm of a heartbeat can be measured to assess a person’s health.
Auditory – Relating to the sense of hearing. – The auditory system in our body helps us detect and interpret sounds.
Signals – Transmissions or messages sent from one place to another, often used in the context of communication or biological processes. – Neurons in the brain send signals to each other to process information.
Information – Facts or details about a subject that are learned or provided. – Scientists gather information from experiments to understand natural phenomena.
Synesthesia – A condition in which one sense is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses. – Some people with synesthesia might see colors when they hear music.
