76020324 Scientists have explained the attractiveness of harmonious sounds
Scientists have explained why the harmonious sounds like people more disharmonious. The work of researchers appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters, and short of it says New Scientist. Most pleasing to the human ear intervals to form pairs of sounds whose frequencies are related in simple ratios such as 2:1 (octave) or 3:2 (perfect fifth). In earlier studies it was shown that such combinations of sounds like the people regardless of age – that is, This effect is not related to music education. Researchers have developed a mathematical model that describes how the sounds come from the ear to the brain and how excited with the relevant neurons. Scientists have examined the situation when two so-called sensory neurons respond to two different sounds. Each neuron in this sends an electrical signal to the intermediate neuron, which, in turn, transmits a pulse to the target neuron- "receiver " in the brain. Created by the authors' model intermediate neuron "triggered " in the case when the received signal from one or both of the sensory neurons. In that case, if a person hears the harmonious sounds, signals from sensory neurons reach the intermediate neuron at a time, and if disharmonious – then at different times. The nerve cells are arranged so that after the "response ", they need some time to "reload ". Accordingly, in the event of a succession of harmonious sounds of excited neurons occurs at regular intervals, and if the time intervals between disharmonious "triggering " intermediate neurons are not uniform. The researchers also determined the amount of information contained in a harmonious and disharmonious pairs of sounds. Since the random sequence of signals is much less information than a regular alternating sequence. Accordingly, the signals caused by harmonious sounds that are more informative than the signals triggered by inharmonious. The authors identified information, "the fullness of " the signals generated by both types of pairs of sounds. According to the researchers, this information can be directly used to test their hypotheses on the working neurons.
