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I suffer from tinnitus predicated on hearing loss and I routinely experience auditory pareidolia as part of what amounts to prior stimulus replay. For example

by Quequau 10y ago

I suffer from tinnitus predicated on hearing loss and I routinely experience auditory pareidolia as part of what amounts to prior stimulus replay. For example where I live there is a test of the civil emergency sirens every Saturday at noon and every Saturday afternoon I perceive faint echos of the test well in to the evening. A more disturbing example is from watching sporting events on TV. I'm a big fan of rugby so I watch a lot of matches. Late in the evening long after the TV has been turned off I perceive faint crowd noise and speech which seems very much to be the announcers (i.e. in their accent) coming from the room where the TV is located. It's enough to drive me out of my comfort to go check on things to make extra-double sure that everything has been turned off (even though I know full well it's off). It's hard to put into words how distressing these experiences can be. The "fact" that "only crazy people hear voices" being a significant contributor. It's also interesting that just knowing that enough people have had similar experiences that there is a phrase "auditory pareidolia" has turned out to be so comforting.

spangry 10y ago
Sounds similar to 'Musical ear syndrome': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_ear_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_ear_syndrome Unfortunately most of the proposed causes seem pretty speculative to me. Good old "brain searching for a pattern" seems like the obvious one to reach for. Fortunately it seems to be relatively common (although it is disconcerting). I've been experiencing this recently and I swear I can hear AM band radio. Interestingly, the 'white noise' backdrop for these 'phantom sounds' is generated by one of 2 machines in my house: an air purifier and an aircon unit. Even more interesting is that both have air-ionisers built in to them for air purification purposes (negative ions from the purifier, unclear what's in the A/C). At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I wonder if there's possibly a connection... EDIT: If there was something to this, it would certainly give more meaning to the phrase 'babbling brook' (i.e. breaking water negatively ionises the surrounding area). I know that sounds up there with other hippy-science like 'crystal healing', but take a look at [1] & [2]. [1] http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes#1 http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-p... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_air_ionization_therapy#Mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_air_ionization_therap...

by Quequau 10y ago

spangry 10y ago

Sounds similar to 'Musical ear syndrome': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_ear_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_ear_syndrome Unfortunately most of the proposed causes seem pretty speculative to me. Good old "brain searching for a pattern" seems like the obvious one to reach for. Fortunately it seems to be relatively common (although it is disconcerting). I've been experiencing this recently and I swear I can hear AM band radio. Interestingly, the 'white noise' backdrop for these 'phantom sounds' is generated by one of 2 machines in my house: an air purifier and an aircon unit. Even more interesting is that both have air-ionisers built in to them for air purification purposes (negative ions from the purifier, unclear what's in the A/C). At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I wonder if there's possibly a connection... EDIT: If there was something to this, it would certainly give more meaning to the phrase 'babbling brook' (i.e. breaking water negatively ionises the surrounding area). I know that sounds up there with other hippy-science like 'crystal healing', but take a look at [1] & [2]. [1] http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes#1 http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-p... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_air_ionization_therapy#Mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_air_ionization_therap...