Hearing the light: Skipping pylons and the strange sound of silent motion

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• Elliot Freeman (City, University of London)
• Wednesday 04 December 2019, 12:00-13:00
• Room 909B, Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Joan P O'Brien.

Can you hear through your eyes? When the viral ‘jumping pylon ’ gif hit the internet recently, many people discovered they could ‘hear’ juddering or thudding sensations evoked by moving images.

Neuroscientist Elliot Freeman, a senior lecturer at City, University of London, has had a head start researching this ‘visual-ear’ phenomenon, having experienced it most of his life. He will present his latest findings from internet surveys, brain stimulation experiments and neuroimaging, which reveal what kinds of people have a ‘visual ear’, and what their brains might be doing. Results suggest that it is highly prevalent, correlated with a variety of diverse perceptual and personality traits, and may be dependent on the balance of excitation and inhibition in the brain. These discoveries could eventually feed into improved medical diagnosis, sensory prosthetics, user interfaces, and multimedia entertainment.

Bio: Senior lecturer and researcher in perceptual neuroscience at City, University of London, Dr Freeman has authored numerous articles on individual differences in perception, and his work has featured in New Scientist , Guardian , Le Monde , Canada National Post , and New York Times .

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