You're strolling through the woods with solitude around when suddenly, faintly from the backdrop buzz of the forest — impossibly, chillingly — you catch the sound of your name being called.
Could it be a
specter?
Sasquatch? Some elaborate prank by a hidden camera crew? It's likely none of those — so why do people sometimes hear their names or other words spoken when no one is uttering a thing? And is it ever cause for concern?
The occurrence of hearing distinct voices or sounds in meaningless background noise is termed "auditory pareidolia." The origins of this noise vary; they might include electric fans; flowing water; jet engines; the hums of laundry machines; or white-noise devices, according to audiologists. It's an auditory variation of pareidolia, wherein people perceive faces or other meaningful shapes in ambiguous visual stimuli.
Auditory pareidolia isn't categorized as a form of auditory hallucination, which arises when a person hears sounds that aren't real and occur without any external stimulus, such as white noise. Such hallucinations are prevalent in various mental disorders, including schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder. Non-psychiatric hallucinations have also been documented in individuals with hearing impairment, though the condition, termed musical ear syndrome, is relatively uncommon and underexplored.
However, both individuals with and without these conditions can experience auditory pareidolia, which specifically emerges from background noise.
But why does auditory pareidolia occur at all?
"Imagine your brain as having this vast repository of patterns. All the words you know, and have ever heard in your life are in there," explained Neil Bauman, an audiologist and CEO of the Center for Hearing Loss Help based in Washington, to Live Science. "It selects what it thinks is the best pattern. That 'best' pattern may be completely off. In fact, it could be far from accurate."
The sounds perceived during auditory pareidolia aren't entirely fabricated by our brains. Instead, they arise from a misinterpretation of real sounds — for instance, an unexpected spike in a static signal or in the background noise emanating from a forest.
"The patterns in most noise sources fluctuate constantly," Andrew King, director of the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, told Live Science. "Take white noise: Averaged over time, it becomes flat, but there will be certain points where the pattern is slightly different. That might be sufficient to trigger recognition in a person."
King attributes auditory pareidolia to our brain's continuous efforts to make sense of and identify patterns in the surrounding environment. It's especially prone to occur when somewhat recognizable sounds are obscured by the background hum of a noisy setting, like a restaurant or a bar.
In these instances, the brain employs a process known as contrast gain control, adjusting the sensitivity of brain cells that respond to auditory and visual input so they can adapt to constant stimuli.
"A highly evolved capacity to maximize the likelihood of being able to hear communication or other sounds may be very important," King noted. In essence, humans may be wired to listen for fragments of language in a cacophony of background noise, even if they're not actually present.
Despite being frequently reported, auditory pareidolia isn't as extensively researched by neuroscientists as its visual equivalent. This is partly because the triggers that can cause people to mishear certain sounds are not as consistent or predictable as those that may lead them to incorrectly recognize faces, like the man in the moon.
"The extent to which this is a 'bottom-up' process — driven by the statistics of stimuli — as opposed to a 'top-down,' attention-based mechanism is quite unclear," King remarked. Bottom-up processing involves the brain piecing together bits of stimuli to comprehend them, whereas top-down processing is more influenced by our expectations and prior knowledge.
"You'll likely be more prone to pick out something familiar to you, but that's purely speculative," King added. He believes it's "probably a top-down process."
So, if you ever hear your name called from the murky depths of a deserted forest, you might not need to bolt in the opposite direction. But if you're worried about hearing voices where there's no sound, seeking professional assistance may be worthwhile.
