Natural sounds and our auditory system

Our everyday life is coloured by natural sound textures. How does our brain transform them to a rich repertoire of our hearing experiences? For studying this, it is insufficient to simply use synthetic sounds in artificial conditions. Here, we introduce some of our attempts to deepen our understanding of the auditory system through carefully studying natural sound signals that arrive at our ears in the natural environment (outside the experiment rooms). Specifically, we focus on binaural recordings that include effects of natural head movements and natural reverberations coming from walls, trees, etc. Our study revealed how we adapt to a reverberating environment and called for reconsidering some of the established theories of auditory research. If we can precisely understand what underpins our perception of sound textures, we will be able not only to transfer the content of a sound but also to manipulate its fine texture.

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