Re: Innate responses to sound (David Mountain )


Subject: Re: Innate responses to sound
From:    David Mountain  <dcm@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Thu, 22 May 2008 00:28:59 -0400

I suggest that you look into rhythm. This is a very important cue for acoustically identifying animal species from the sounds produced by their movements. There is a very interesting related literature in vision on the perception of biological motion. -------------------------------------------------------------------- David C. Mountain, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering Boston University 44 Cummington St. Boston, MA 02215 Email: dcm@xxxxxxxx Website: http://www.bu.edu/dbin/bme/faculty/?prof=dcm Phone: (617) 353-4343 FAX: (617) 353-6766 Office: ERB 413 On Thu, 22 May 2008, Ross Rochford wrote: > Hi, > > > > > > I am considering for my thesis an exploration of innate responses to sounds, > that is, unlearned and presumably having evolved to serve some function. The > idea of the evolutionary lag where we have evolved to adapt to an > environment that existed thousands of years ago interests me, I wonder what > the implications of this are for how we respond to sound and how music > affects our mood. > > > > I am looking for papers (or books) on responses to sound that are likely to > be innate in humans. Also papers that discuss the evolutionary origins of > our responses to sound and music and how our past environment (and tasks > therein, e.g. hunting) have shaped them. I am hoping for the kinds of > explanations that have been proposed for arachnophobia, that a fear of > spiders had survival advantage as we may have evolved among poisonous > spiders. > > While researching, I found a suggestion that our response to nails on a > blackboard is because of the similarity (of its spectrum) to the warning > call of macaque monkeys. Although I don't believe this is an adequate > explanation (the warning calls don't produce the same response as nails on a > blackboard in humans), it is similar to what I am looking for. > > > > > > Any suggestions on where to start are greatly appreciated. > > > > > > > > Ross >


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