This is fascinating, because for years I've noticed that I have an acute opposite thing - I can separate sounds drastically when otherwise it shouldn't make sen

This is fascinating, because for years I've noticed that I have an acute opposite thing - I can separate sounds drastically when otherwise it shouldn't make sense. As in, I can hear a conversation, focus on it, and pick it up faintly even though it's something like 15 feet away and around a corner and mixed in with lots of general white noise. It's not a 100% thing but I think it came from years and years of practice in music (identifying different instruments, their lines/notes) and also intentionally eavesdropping conversations at bars and stuff (to practice writing better dialog). It's a very interesting condition to have, because sometimes certain sounds will jump out at me in ways that wouldn't bother most other people - for example, the newest GMC TV commercials on US TV have this marimba chime thing that kicks in at the very end and it's a purposefully off-tempo, non-harmonized cacophony that drives me effing bonkers.