Organising the auditory world

The brain is constantly monitoring the acoustic environment for information it can use to make sense of the auditory world and to create a mental map of the environment. The brain’s task is to organise the sound, to identify and select the sound of interest, and to be able to follow this sound over time.

• Organise 1A good mental map of the current sound environment...
• Select 2... allows the listener to select a desired source
• Follow 3... and enhance the ability to follow the source over time as knowledge about the selected source is accumulated.

Making sense of sound

Imagine you are in a meeting in a large office building. People are speaking and listening casually. The conversation starts and stops, and there are other conversations and meetings occurring down the hall and in the next room. In addition, heating and ventilation systems are humming and telephones are ringing.

The first task, when listening to a speaker in this environment is to know where the voice is coming from. Once the sound source has been identified, we know where to listen. Using this knowledge to focus attention to that location, we can better ignore sounds that that do not contribute to understanding, such as background noise. This is made possible because the brain is able to create and use a mental map based on the acoustic information it receives.