Zwicker tones

[hattifattener]

So, there are visual afterimages, right? But apparently the equivalent auditory afterimages also exist: if you listen to white noise with a notch cut out of its spectrum, and the noise suddenly stops, you will sometimes briefly hear a tone that would have filled the notch. Web page with spectrograms and a .wav file.

Comments

[randomdreams]

That's totally weird!

[eub]

It's interesting that the tone lasts that long, ~10 seconds. That seems to say the system has some negative feedback with a multi-second time constant. What is that, and where do we see it in normal operation? I'm not aware of my ear e.g. adapting to loud or soft sounds after ten seconds.

Also interesting if unshocking about the tinnitus link: "Our data shows that about 1/3 of normal subjects will hear the Zwicker tone for at least one of the three band-gaps presented here. In contrast, subjects that report tinnitus are just about guaranteed to hear a Zwicker tone."

[hattifattener]

I only hear the tone for a second or so, which seems about in line with other auditory reflexes, like protecting my ears in a loud environment. On the other hand, I'm using laptop speakers or cheap headphones. Do you really hear it for ten seconds?

[jinian]

I don't think I can hear it. What's your success rate?