Do You Experience Visually-Evoked
Auditory Response?
A little while back this popular gif of three telephone towers playing jump rope circulated the
internet. The gif evoked a reaction from people from all over the world and polarised audiences
to a “white and gold or blue and black dress” standard. Why? Because the gif consisted of zero
sound yet many people could hear the thud of the middle telephone tower landing on the ground.
So, how could this be?
While there is no scientific evidence consensus on this particular gif, many experts speculate
that people are experiencing a phenomenon known as visually-evoked auditory response
(vEAR). This involves the convergence of visual and auditory events, similarly to synesthesia –
a condition where the experience of one sense triggers another. For example, seeing sounds
and tasting numbers (yes, these are real examples).
While not a lot is known about vEAR, it’s looking more common than originally believed with
21% of participants in one study claiming to experience this phenomenon. So, what is actually
happening?
A plausible explanation is that our brain is filling in for sounds that don’t occur in our reality.
Throughout our lives, we are exposed to many sounds created by certain movements: typing on
a keyboard, footsteps on the ground, chatter with lip movements, the shattering of a glass when
it’s dropped, and more. When we see an action with no sound accompanying it, it could be that
our brains are still producing the accompanying sound, just inside of our own brains.
Still, not much is known about this condition – especially as many people with varying degrees
of hearing loss report a mixture of hearing the thud, feeling the thud, or hearing nothing at all.
For now, this event remains in speculation. However, if you want to continue to test your vEAR,
asubreddit community has emerged that posts “noisy gifs” that you may also hear.