View And hearing They are two senses that influence each other and that our brain uses to perceive what happens around us. To reconstruct a representation as accurate as possible of reality, the brain Integrate information visual with those auditorycombining them together like the pieces of a puzzle. When this information is coherentthe result is an improvement in our perception. For example, observing the movement of someone’s lips that speak can help us better understand what he says, enhancing what we listen to. But what happens when you see and hear come into conflict? In these cases, as for themcgurk effectthe brain can be taken in deceitgiving rise to surprising perceptual illusions. These phenomena show that the world we perceive is not a simple Reality registrationbut an active construction of our mind.
How the eyes help us to feel the sounds of speech
When we talk to someone, our ability to listen And interpret the sounds of his voice It does not depend only on earsbut also … come on eyes! On the other hand, anyone has happened to find themselves at a party or a concert, with high volume music, and to be able to understand what a friend says only by observing the movement of his lips.
In fact, the language It is an extremely complex phenomenon and our brain, to interpret it, also relies on visual information: the gestures, the movements of the head and the lips are all auxiliary signals, not less important than the voice, which we use to decipher the Sounds of speech.
A fascinating example of this interaction between sight and hearing is themcgurk effecta perceptual illusion that can be experienced on one’s skin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpgvegqdfvm
In the video, the same sound is always reproduced (“PA“), But the way we perceive it (“PA“Or“ago“) Changes according to the movement of the lips of those who speak (listen to your eyes closed to believe!). This effect demonstrates how much our brain also uses visual information to understand the spoken language. Some studies have even shown that alone look at the movement of the lipswithout feeling any sound, can activate the hearing cortexan important brain area for the elaboration of sounds, similar to the language listened to. In other words, see helps to hear.
It is no coincidence that many people wearing eyeglasses refer to “feel worse“When they remove them. Our eyes are real antennas that influence our ability to understand sounds, so, without a clear visual supportthe brain has fewer tools available to decipher language.
When the view deceives the hearing: the illusion of ventriloquo
Vista and hearing do not collaborate only in theinterpretation of languagebut they also represent a sort of compass that helps us locate the stimuli in space. For example, if we feel the horn of a car, we can guess in which direction you are. However, only when we turn around and see it with our eyes can we locate it precisely and avoid an accident.
However, not always the visual information And auditory I’m in perfect agreement And, in some cases, the brain can be deceived, as happens in theIllusion of Ventriloquo. Observing the show of a twenty -five, our brain attributes the sound from the voice to the puppet, which moves the mouth simulating human language, and not to its puppeteer, which remains motionless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sgqdgmtgxk
But why do we fall into this illusion? The reason is that, in the perception of spaceour brain considers the view a source of information more reliable ofhearingwhich can be easily deceived by the surrounding environment. In one ambiguous situationlike the show of a twenty -five, the brain, in an attempt to locate the real origin Of the voice, he lets himself be “conditioned” by what he sees, interpreting the movement of the puppet lips as a more coherent signal than the immobile figure of the puppeteer, thus attributing the voice to the puppet.
This perceptual illusion also plays a role in ours daily life. When we watch television or a film at the cinema, for example, it seems to us that the Voices of the actors come directly from movements of their lips on the screen and not from the speakers, often positioned behind.
The stream-Bounse effect: how sounds can condition what we see
In some cases, they are the sounds to influence what we see, helping our brain to resolve situations ambiguous to sight. A clear example is the effect ‘Stream-Bounce’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99bard3mhig
In this perceptual illusiontwo points that move in opposite directions appear on the screen. When they cross the center, they seem to bounce each other (‘Boun’ effect) or cross each other by continuing on their original trajectory (‘Stream’ effect)?
In reality, both interpretations are correct and what we see can be influenced by hearing: if we listen to a ball of a ball that roller On a surface, we will tend to “see” the two points crossed. On the contrary, if the sound is a thudsimilar to that of two tennis balls that touch each other, we will have the illusion that the two points bounce, changing direction.
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