What may sound completely normal to one person may be traumatic or excruciatingly painful for another. Some people are hyper sensitive to certain frequencies of sound. Sensitivity to environmental noise can dramatically how someone perceives sound. For example, “We know, for instance, that people learn to respond without alarm to the honk of a car horn if heard from the safety of their homes, but are startled to hear the same sound while crossing a busy street.” -Dr. The cause of these differences depends on surrounding. Researchers have found that the brain can interpret the same sound in different ways. When the brain receives electrical signals from the auditory nerve, it transforms them into sound. These cells do not grow back and if enough of them become damaged or die, your hearing will be affected.īrain chemistry and its relation to sound interpretation is an emerging science. This is caused by damage to the tiny hair cells in the cochlea. Most people over the age of 65 experience some form of hearing loss. Changes in the density and shape of these bones will cause slightly different sound vibrations to be transmitted to the cochlea.Īge plays a large role in hearing. The three bones in the inner ear (malleus, incus, stapes) are unique to each person. Factors Influencing Soundscape Perceptionīone density can change the way our bodies interact with, and interpret sounds. With this understanding, we can now examine how individuals may perceive the same sound differently. When these electrical signals reach the brain, they are turned into a sound we recognize and understand. These electrical signals are then sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. The organ of Corti is made up of tiny hair cells that are responsible for transforming the received vibrations into electrical impulses. Within this structure is our organ for hearing, the organ of Corti (organ of hearing). The cochlea is a fluid-filled structure that is coiled up into a snail-like form. The stapes pushes in and out on an area called the oval window, which transmits the vibrations to the cochlea. It transmits these vibrations to the incus which then passes them to the stapes. The malleus, also called the hammer, is the first to receive vibrations from the ear drum. The vibrations of the ear drum engage the three bones of the inner ear in succession. Here, they travel until contacting the ear drum, causing it to vibrate. First, sound waves hit the outer ear and are channeled into the external auditory canal. The Process of Hearingīefore sounds are registered by the brain, they must travel through the ear. Before we look at the factors influencing soundscape perception, we need to better understand how our sense of hearing works. Not only are soundscapes unique to specific locations, they are also unique to each person hearing them. This picture is best described as a landscape of sound. This allows us to pinpoint where sounds come from to the left or right, front or back and even above or below. We can do this thanks to our binaural hearing. If you close your eyes, you can paint a picture of your surroundings based on sound. Much like how a landscape describes the view of all the land around you, a soundscape describes the audio of all the sounds around you. We all know this suffix from the word “landscape.” The suffix -scape means scene, picture or view. These vibrations travel to our inner ear, where they are turned into electrical signals, and then sent to the brain for interpretation. The word “soundscape” is made of two parts: “sound” and “scape.” All sounds are vibrations. To dig deeper into what a soundscape is, let’s take a look at its roots. A soundscape is all audible sounds within a specific area. Each is unique to a specific location and changes by the minute. Every place has one and you are always in one.
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