Sounds Like Light

When speech sounds like music.

Repetition can boost memory and perception. However, repeating the same stimulus several times in immediate succession also induces intriguing perceptual transformations and illusions. Here, we investigate the Speech to Song Transformation (S2ST), a massed repetition effect in the auditory modality, which crosses the boundaries between language and music. In the S2ST, a phrase repeated several ...

Sounds Like Light: Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Mach’s Work in Acoustics and Aerodynamics

Auditory Segregation of Vowel-like Sounds

Experiments were conducted to determine the extent to which a fundamental frequency or formant frequency transition influenced segregation of a simultaneous pair of single-formant harmonic complexes. Results showed that even a minute transition facilitated segregation. The effect was larger for formant frequency than fundamental frequency transitions. It is concluded that dynamic aspects of spe...

Light location influences the perceived locations of internal sounds.

Numerous studies have shown that visual stimuli can bias the perceived location of auditory stimuli. Here, we sought to determine if a visual stimulus can also bias the perceived location of multiple internal auditory stimuli. Fifty subjects were presented with a train of eight binaural click-pairs over headphones while a single flash of light was presented either to the left or to the right si...

Implosive and prenasalized consonant-like sounds in babbling

This paper reports an analysis of the production of implosive and prenasalized sounds by 6 children (3 Fulfulde and 3 Bambara) from the onset of babbling to the end of their first year. It shows that the production of implosive consonant-like sounds by the children is very early on language-specific i.e related to the presence of these consonants in the language the children are exposed to. Unl...