Screenshot: Twitter
The internet has once again come across another bizarre thing to focus on while the world burns everyone them, and it comes in the form of a gif.
Lisa DeBruine, from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow, recently tweeted a gif of some pylons “jumping rope,” and then posed this question:
“Does anyone in visual perception know why you can hear this gif?”
Does anyone in visual perception know why you can hear this gif? pic.twitter.com/mcT22Lzfkp
— Lisa DeBruine (@lisadebruine) December 2, 2017
The gif was originally made by HappyToast, and many people are saying they actually hear noise coming from this silent gif. But what is the reason behind this? Some folks on Twitter, including DeBruine herself, chimed in with some possible explanations:
My favourite explanation so far is that this triggers the acoustic reflex, which is usually triggered by speech or loud noises. https://t.co/OjHX84xs4C
— Lisa DeBruine (@lisadebruine) December 3, 2017
When the visuals presented to you impose a cognitive load greater than what your brain can handle, your brain tends to stop processing it objectively and replaces it with stereotypes/previous experience. This image forces your brain to associate it with the stereotype image 1/2
— Ministry of Public Enlightenment (@Atimaharathi) December 3, 2017
of skipping rope. The mind associates the image with the steel lattice towers “skipping rope” with the electrical lines being “the rope”. This also makes your mind link the image with other effects associated with the stereotype. Hence, you can “hear” the “jumps”. 2/2
— Ministry of Public Enlightenment (@Atimaharathi) December 3, 2017
There are stronger evolutionary priors on large objects hitting the ground, and objects occluding objects, than lights flashing.
— Aaron Milstein (@neurosutras) December 3, 2017
This brings me back to my grad school days. It used to be thought that the AR was protective, but my advisor (among others) failed to find enviros where levels would trigger, with the exception of mating frogs in Amazon. Still, other characteristics made it unlikely to trigger AR
— Kyle Stratis (@KyleStratis) December 4, 2017
It feels like my ears are anticipating the thud but I think that might have more to do with the brain than the ears.
— Richard Colletta (@DJColletta) December 4, 2017
Alphr reached out to Trevor Cox, professor of acoustic engineering, and he had this to say:
“There are well known cases (synesthesia) of sensory inputs crossing to other domains, e.g. people who associate colors with sounds. So it doesn’t surprise me that for some viewers a sound results. We also tend to think of our senses as being separate, but our brain collates responses from all senses to work out what is going on. So I would say it is likely to be some effect in the brain rather than a physical effect like the acoustic reflex.”
I don’t know what any of that means, I just know I hear something. So, do you hear this gif?
