Do You Hear What I Hear? Your Brain and Sound
An evening of interactive auditory pleasure!
A feast of auditory illusions awaited over 250 visitors at a stimulating and interactive evening of science, music and fun at the British Library Conference Centre on the evening of 11 October 2010.
The event was a collaborative venture between the Science Technology and Medicine team at the British Library, UCL Neuroscience and UCL Ear Institute, working closely with researchers from UCL Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences (SH&PS), and the charity, Deafness Research UK. The result was an awe-inspiring evening of interactive science aimed at all ages, exploring how the brain perceives sound and interprets speech and music.
The evening started with an auspicious parp on a vuvuzela and an introduction by Professor Stuart Rosen (Speech and Hearing Science), which was followed by a lively demonstration of how the ear works by Tobin May (Deafness Research UK’s Bionic Ear Show presenter), complete with a giant ear and brain! Dr. Ifat Yasin (Ear Institute) explained how the brain interprets sounds by allowing the audience listen to some entertaining auditory illusions, including a live performance by Rebecca Smith, Leader of the Orchestra of the City, of a prelude by Bach to illustrate how classical composers used such illusions in their music to great effect.
Following an interlude, attendees were treated to a capella stylings of The Harmonettes (pictured above), joined by an impromptu human beat-boxer from the audience! The remainder of the evening offered five different interactive demonstration rooms across the Conference Centre, including
• The opportunity to test their own ears by trying out a range of speech-based illusions;
• Seeing how a cochlear implant processes sound;
• Watching a real-time recording from a person’s brain in response to different sounds (Pictured below); listening to music from the Congo used as language;
• Finding out what happens when you try to speak at the same time as listening to a delayed recording of your own voice;
• Examples of auditory processing and mimicry in different animal species
With people queuing for tickets for the evening, this event was in high demand, and attendees agreed that the evening was interesting and informative, but most of all fun!
