Summary: A new study shows that misophonia, strong negative reactions to certain sounds, is closely linked to cognitive and emotional inflexibility. Participants with high misophonia severity struggled to shift between…
Category: Auditory Neuroscience
How Growing Up Changes the Way We Hear, and Feel, Music
Summary: Our music preferences evolve across life — from youthful exploration to nostalgic reflection. A large-scale analysis of 40,000 users’ streaming data over 15 years revealed that young listeners engage…
When Music Falls Flat: Why Some Brains Don’t Enjoy Music
Summary: Some people feel absolutely nothing when listening to music—and not because of bad taste. A rare condition called specific musical anhedonia involves a disconnect between the brain’s auditory and…
Gene Therapy Restores Hearing in Those with Deafness
Summary: A new study shows that gene therapy can significantly improve hearing in both children and adults with congenital deafness caused by mutations in the OTOF gene. The therapy uses…
Perfect Pitch Can Be Learned: Study Challenges Long-Held Beliefs
Summary: Absolute pitch, once thought to be an innate ability or only attainable through early childhood training, may be learnable in adulthood. Researchers trained 12 adult musicians in an eight-week…
Ancient Ear Muscles Reactivate When We Struggle to Listen
Summary: Humans have vestigial ear muscles that once helped our ancestors focus on sounds. New research shows these muscles still activate when we strain to hear in noisy environments. Scientists…
How We Filter Out Background Sounds When Speaking
Summary: Researchers have traced how the brain filters out background noise during speech using signals between the motor and auditory cortices. These milliseconds-long electrical signals, called auditory corollary discharge, originate…
Unexpected Sounds Boost Dopamine, Leading to Riskier Decisions
Summary: A new study shows that unexpected sounds can cause dopamine bursts in the brain, which may lead to riskier decision-making. Researchers found that participants were 4% more likely to…
Manipulating Brain Waves During Sleep With Sound
Summary: Sound stimulation can manipulate brain waves during REM sleep, a stage crucial for memory and cognition. Using advanced technology, researchers were able to increase the frequency of brain oscillations…
Pitch Perfect: Singing Earworms Reveals Surprising Trait
Summary: Researchers discovered that nearly 45% of people sing earworms in perfect pitch, suggesting a hidden “perfect pitch” ability in the general population. Even without formal musical training, participants accurately…