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How Seeing Can Trump Listening, Mapped In the Brain

cortex writes "University of Utah bioengineers discovered our understanding of language may depend more heavily on vision than previously thought: under the right conditions, what you see can override what you hear. In an article published in PLOS One, 'Seeing Is Believing: Neural Representations of Visual Stimuli in Human Auditory Cortex Correlate with Illusory Auditory Perceptions,' the authors showed that visual stimuli can influence neural signals in the auditory processing part of the brain and change what a person hears. In this study patients were shown videos of an auditory illusion called the McGurk Effect while electrical recordings were made from the surface of the cerebral cortex."

8 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Kind of expected this... by Thantik · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ever happen to be looking for a street in an unknown area, and you end up turning down your radio? This actually increases your visual acuity slightly even though many may question your sanity when doing it. Many blind people have increased auditory capacity, and this has been known for a very long time. It doesn't seem all that far fetched that one (or more) of those senses could override the other. Maybe that meal that you hate tastes absolutely amazing...but looks so terrible that you taste it differently.

  2. Narrator annoying by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 2

    Why can't the woman shutup for 10 seconds so I can concentrate on the effect she keeps prattling on about? It makes it difficult to study when her voice is over top of the illusion half the time.

    --
    If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  3. Hmmm by slick7 · · Score: 2

    One picture, one thousand words, who'd a thunk it?

    --
    The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
  4. Re:Did not notice effect at all... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    I heard the different sounds, bar and far, quite clearly and distinctly.

    Me too. The effect works on me. If I watch the video, I hear "fa". If I close my eyes I hear "ba". Even when I know he is saying "ba", I hear "fa". So I am normal.

  5. When I See Trump? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    I can't listen, either..

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. Re:Did not notice effect at all... by the_other_chewey · · Score: 2

    After googling for the McGurk Effect and watching a bunch of videos I have concluded that I can't really sense this effect at all. I'll take their word that most people can.

    Doesn't work for me either, not even a bit. "Ba" all the way.

    I have made an observation that is semi-related to this though:

    Watching a subtitled movie where the spoken language is totally opaque
    to me, fast-paced dialogue can be tricky to follow. In this case, turning the
    sound up helps me read the subtitles.

    Brains are really weird.

  7. Re:Lip position by GreyWanderingRogue · · Score: 3, Informative

    How can he physically produce the "Baa" sound when his bottom lip is tucked behind his teeth? His lips don't press together when the illusion is supposed to make it sound like he's saying "Faa" instead. I think he's actually making two different sounds.

    Isn't the "Baa" sound impossible to make without the lips pressing together? Isn't the "Faa" sound impossible to make without blowing on the lip-teeth connection with the top and bottom lips separate?

    This is the perfect description of what your brain is doing. Unfortunately, it appears you're misunderstanding what is actually going on. There is only one audio recording. It is dubbed over both clips. Check the section where there is a side by side with both videos. What you hear depends on what side of the screen you look at, even though there is only one audio track.

  8. Re:Lip position by the_other_chewey · · Score: 2

    How can he physically produce the "Baa" sound when his bottom lip is tucked behind his teeth?

    He can't...

    Isn't the "Baa" sound impossible to make without the lips pressing together? Isn't the "Faa" sound impossible to make without blowing on the lip-teeth connection with the top and bottom lips separate?

    ...that's why it's the same sound dubbed over different videos.