[Slickscientist (OP)]

Introduction:
I have been recently been having ideas about the physics that occur in our bodies, and I have come up with a few theories. I have spoken to my science teacher, and she advised me to write to the naked scientists. I have had no reply from them yet, so I will post my theories on this forum.

At the moment, I am 13. I would like to develop my ideas into a scientific paper by the middle of next year when I will turn 14. I have submitted a get in-touch query to the scientists asking them if they could help me, in terms of supplying me with chances the validate my theory with research. I want to add more value to the scientific community so if anyone can get in touch with them or any other people who can help me, please let me know.
Yours sincerely,
Slickscientist,13.
(The ideas are in the attachment below, and it is free to download if you are a guest).

[Kryptid]

In regards to what you say about hearing, I've learned from personal experience that the ears do adapt to local noise levels. I work in a loud facility and have to wear earplugs. One day, one of the plugs came out and I, somehow, did not notice until the end of the work day. When it was time for me to go home, I took the other plug out and discovered that my hearing in the plugged ear was much more sensitive than in the exposed ear.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Dear Kryptid,
Thanks for sharing your personal experience. This might also be a factor effecting how the brain processes the sounds.

[Colin2B]

I have been recently been having ideas about the physics that occur in our bodies and I have come up with a few theories.

Looking at your pdf:
“I think that the point when the action is created is ‘ground zero’ and might
be faster than light as it takes up no time. It’s hard to explain but I think
you get the idea. Of course, this might not be the case for events that take
a long time to start (not end) but it can be the case for the starting point
for a chain of events that take quite some time.”

The event might be instantaneous, but it won’t be faster than light unless it is travelling somewhere. When information about that event is travelling the speed will depend on how it is travelling eg as sound or light.
Yes, some things can take a long time from start to finish, but we would usually count the start and finish as separate events, each with their own positions in space and time.

“Could there be a connection between heart rate, blood supply and nerves
that can have an impact on the speed of the nerve impulses? Could your
emotions or state of mind have an impact too?”

The emotions and state of mind control hormones which certainly have an effect on heart rate, blood supply etc.
It appears that our perception of time is more to do with the brain’s interpretation than speed of nerve impulses. See this article on an experiment to investigate this https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00032
 
“When you sleep early, your family are still downstairs and are talking
loudly. You can hear every whisper, quiet click and shout from the noisy
room. But the people downstairs can only hear themselves. You want to
grab that midnight snack from the draw on the other side of the room.
You get up and you are worried that your family can hear you as you think
your breathing is loud and that the floor is too creaky. THUMP!! You
knock over your lamp and panic that your parents have heard you over
their talking but what you do not know is that they did not hear you; why
is this?”

Yes, our hearing is much more sensitive when we are lying down or asleep. I found this out when I first set a clock radio. I set it at a level I thought would just wake me, so fairly quiet. The next morning I woke with a start to what seemed a very loud radio.
There are a number of factors involved in why your parents don’t hear you. The most obvious is that the sound level has decreased by the time it reaches them. As you say, the background noise where they are will mask the sound of your thump - up to a point. The effect of one sound masking another is quite complex and depends on the relative levels and frequencies of the two sounds.

If you are interested in sound perception look up psychoacoustics, it is a fascinating subject.

Do keep researching and expanding on your ideas, you are making a good start.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Dear Colin2B,
Thank you for responding. When I was talking about how the action was quicker than light, I was trying to say that the action that starts the action is instantaneous, thus taking no or very little time compared to how long it takes for the light to travel through the air, into our eyes and to our brain by nerve impulses.

Also, I did not know that the start and the end are classed as two different events. In that case, this theory might only represent the starting point of the action. I have also lernt that the body delays the sound and light so that we van hear them simultaneously. The futher the distance, the further the gap. This is why we see others’ lips moving at the same time as the sound being produced.

In regards to what you say about sound, I noticed my theory in action when all the doors were open. Also, you are absolutely right about the alarm. The brain kind of amplifies it or passes the noise through the noise boundary that we keep during our sleep. Sometimes, you might not be able to hear your alarm even if it is loud: you won't notice it for some tome. Can you explain why.

Thanks for replying and recommending.

[Colin2B]

I did not know that the start and the end are classed as two different events.

In common English usage we talk about events, like Glastonbury, having a duration. In physics we describe events as specific points in spacetime.
So if we describe something which has a duration, eg the sound of a guitar string being plucked, we can describe the start as an event and the end as an event, but we can also define an infinite number of events between those 2. For example, if we take a point in space 1m in front of the centre of the soundhole and perpendicular to the soundboard, we can measure the point in time (at that point in space) when the sound has fallen 5dB; that would be an event.

I have also lernt that the body delays the sound and light so that we van hear them simultaneously. The futher the distance, the further the gap. This is why we see others’ lips moving at the same time as the sound being produced.

If my memory serves me correctly, I think this works up to about 10m, beyond that you notice the difference.

Sometimes, you might not be able to hear your alarm even if it is loud: you won't notice it for some tome. Can you explain why.

My guess would be that it has to do with the stages of sleep and the depth of each stage. There is sometimes the odd effect of the sound being incorporated into a waking dream.
The level of sound required to wake you is called the auditory arousal threshold, you will probably find info on the net. I think the fire services have done research into smoke alarm levels.

By the way, some of your questions could be asked in the main sections of the forum, as long as you don’t advertise your hypotheses.

One comment on your paper. Good start, but don’t be disappointed if you find the questions have already been answered. The important thing is to look at how they were answered, what procedures or experiments were used to determine the conclusions. Ask yourself what experiments you could set up, or what evidence you could gather to test your ideas. Enjoy.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

 Thank you!

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Hi everyone,
After some time, I decided to contact Dr Cris through email directly. I wrote to him and he replied! It sent very helpful, but at least I got something. I will post a snapshot of the emails underneath if anyone is interested.

[alancalverd]

Good observation on hearing. It  is a surprisingly complicated business and Kryptid has mentioned just one of its characteristics - adaptation to background noise. The idea of unilateral adaptation as he has experienced is probably worthy of note because we know that we actually locate sound not just in stereo but in all 3 dimensions, so the processor is not just left-right independent but also very phase and harmonic-sensitive.

The trigger of an unfamiliar noise (your bedside lamp) may derive from a very basic program. Imagine a group of apes chattering: they still have to be alert to a predator's breathing, so it's a survival mechanism. You might read up on the "cocktail party effect". In a crowded room, you can pick out a familiar voice, and if you look at one person you can separate his voice very clearly from the hubbub around him - the additional clue of facial movement filters the sound. But is that the same mechanism as lipreading?

This prompts a short diversion. I saw an interesting TV documentary where an expert lipreader was voicing the conversations between soldiers in silent films from WWI. At one point she said "Sorry, I can't understand these blokes at all." The presenter said "their uniforms are the Lancashire Regiment", whereupon the woman, profoundly deaf from birth, started voicing the rest of the reel in a clear Lancashire accent with dialect words which she cannot ever have heard!

And we can become hyper-alert to an expected signal. I fly small noisy planes with a buddy who is partially deaf. He has to sit across the dinner table and lipread me if there's any other conversation in a quiet restaurant, but in the middle of a hail and thunder storm with the engine, weather and navigation systems all crashing squealing and grinding, and both of us concentrating fully on staying airborne, he responds immediately to traffic control quietly saying our call sign in the midst of rapid chatter from other aircraft. How?

What comes out of a loudspeaker is a single continuous pressure wave, but you can hear the violin and the piano quite distinctly. Or can  you? If you have never heard a solo zubblegung (nobody has - I just invented it!) would you recognise it in an orchestral recording?

It seems that we can pre-program our hearing to be particularly sensitive to something we want to hear, but not in detail, because we can spot the violin or the traffic controller without knowing what note or instruction we are about to hear.       

There's a ton of stuff waiting to be discovered behind everything we do! 

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Hello,
Since I last posted on the forum, a lot has happened. First, in collaboration with my form tutor and careers teacher, I have nearly completed a PowerPoint, explaining my ideas in a more reader-friendly and less compact way. I will hopefully share it with my form class next week and I will publish the PowerPoint and the video of me presenting it. Secondly, I have reached out to the Royal society's grants and fellowship department in London, requesting my ideas to be shared with the appropriate fellows of the society. Lastly, I have also contacted the Department of Psychology at Cambridge Unversity, and Dr CJ Moore from the same department. Dr Moore is an emeritus professor of auditory perception and a world-famous researcher/expert in his field! I await responses from all of them.

Before I go, can I ask that if anyone sees a bit of research, papers, topics, questions and any other things related to my ideas, please can you share them with me, as this would help me?

Thanks for the help,
Slickscientist, 13.

[RD]

Before I go, can I ask that if anyone sees a bit of research, papers, topics, questions and any other things related to my ideas, please can you share them with me, as this would help me?

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_reflex,
(analogous to https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex)

Further reading ... https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_adaptation#Auditory

[Slickscientist (OP)]

I have read on the cocktail party effect, and it has cleared things up a bit; thanks. Also, I have created a logbook to record the instances where I encounter my ideas in real life; I will attach them below.
http://file:///C:/Users/pc/Downloads/Logbook%20to%20record%20theories%20devised%20in%20October%202020. Too big to attach.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Before I go, can I ask that if anyone sees a bit of research, papers, topics, questions and any other things related to my ideas, please can you share them with me, as this would help me?

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_reflex,
(analogous to https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_light_reflex)

Further reading ... https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_adaptation#Auditory

I am not sure about the first/second one, but the last one is interesting. Thanks for trying.

[RD]

I am not sure about the first/second one ...

When people speak their hearing sensitivity is attenuated by the acoustic-reflex.
(a/k/a vocalization-induced stapedius-reflex).
So when people are speaking they are less able to hear faint sounds, not because they concentrating on speech, but because the sensitivity of their hearing has been turned down by reflex action.

Acoustic-reflex is like the pupil-reflex in bright light: reducing the amount of energy reching to the sensor.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Hello again,
I have presented my presentation to my form class this week! All went well, and it as a good experience, even if half of them weren't listening. Unfortunately, I could not video it, but I will attach a copy of the PowerPoint below. Now, I will try to write about my ideas in more detail, listing factors that affect the ideas, experiments (if I can devise them), and other stuff.

 I hope that within a few years, I will be able to submit my ideas for research, and then hopefully develop them into theories. Don't forget to criticise/compliment on my presentation.

Yours sincerely,
Slickscientist

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uGOKWbtjPwE8TVxQnS86c_iCdk1uEb74/view?usp=sharing
(Full explanations have been done in school. For full explanations, please contact me, post on the forum, or see the limited explanations in my word document explaining my ideas briefly. Thanks).

[Colin2B]

I have presented my presentation to my form class this week! All went well, and it as a good experience, even if half of them weren't listening. Unfortunately, I could not video it, but I will attach a copy of the PowerPoint below.

Looking at your presentation, a couple of suggestions:
“How it happened”
(Psychoacoustics and neuroscience)

“Example 1”
In this and some other slides the picture forces the text to start bottom left, it would scan better if the text started upper left. That helps people who are used to reading left to right read your slide faster as it comes up on screen.

You ask about the speed of nerve impulses, you might start with something like this http://www.biologymad.com/nervoussystem/nerveimpulses.htm
Remember that we are also dependant on our brain’s interpretation of these impulses. Have you noticed that when we encounter something new - a new song, a new lesson topic, new story, a new skill, etc - time seems to pass much more slowly; people also mention that time slows down during an accident. This also happens when we are bored, with little stimulation.
Is this change of nerve impulses or a change in the way the brain is processing, perhaps putting all attention onto one thing rather than multitasking?
Might be worth exploring.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Dear Colin2B,
Thank you for the feedback; I will change the slides when I have some time.

I have learned, and I said this to my science class, when you hear a sound, your brain delays it so you can recognise the sound, and find out which direction it is coming from. Remember, you have 2 ears, so the sound waves coming from the left, will have to bend around your head to get to the right ear. This means that the sounds do not enter both ears at the same time. The brain just compensates.