Why do we hear that?

[BadRocketsCo.]

Hello!

I am sure, that we all had that one time when you heard someone call our name behind our back, you turn around, but only to discover, that no-one is there. But why does that happen? What is the science behind that?

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

It's a halucination

[Dkmdlb]

It's audio pareidolia! Our brains are constantly sifting through the overwhelming sensory input in search of important information and relevant patterns, and sometimes they mistakenly interpret meaningless data as something important. It's a delightful bug in our amazing brains.

The theory is that there is intense selective pressure to recognize important information among random noise (for instance, to be able to detect the footsteps of a predator among the rustling of the grass on a windy day), but not much pressure to avoid false positives, so lo and behold, we ended up with brains which often pick out false positives.

This also goes for visual paraeidolia.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Dkmdlb
accidentally a letter

[Napaeozapus]

I sometimes hear recording of sounds that seem outside my head as I am just starting to fall asleep. Like if a noise wakes me up once while I am dozing off I will keep hearing it every time I get close to sleeping again. It is rather annoying, though I haven't had that recently. Never had anything like that while walking around.

[lajoswinkler]

As long as the sound is not repeating itself, you're fine.

[softweir]

Yes, I've had that odd little hallucination of hearing my name in an empty place. Just once - but very disturbing for a few moments!

Another odd one is - when there is very noisy traffic in the street - of thinking I can almost hear voices or phones ringing which go the moment there is a pause in the traffic. One's ears are attuned to hear voices, and when there is sufficient noise of the right sort of pitch they can be fooled.

[vger]

I don't think this is the same phenomenon I've had, but I've noticed many times when in the presence of complex white noise, I will start to hear what sound like conversations, or the kind of chatter I'd expect from a radio DJ.

Napaeozapus, ever heard of this? Might be what you're experiencing. This has happened to me and it is very creepy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

[Kevon87]

That happens a lot when I have my headphones in. I'll be listening to a certain song and it'll sound like someone called my name. Ill take off my headphones and look around.

[Napaeozapus]

Napaeozapus, ever heard of this? Might be what you're experiencing. This has happened to me and it is very creepy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

Seems like it might be a very extreme form of what I have had. It has always just been recordings of what ever I heard while falling asleep. Like a flushing toilet, someone coughing, or people whispering in another room. Nothing ever loud and overly stressful. Just as annoying as being woken up repeatedly usually is. Could be that I just don't find something like that disturbing or creepy so the effect is mitigated.

[Bioman222]

Yeah, I think I have had this happen to me today. Funny, how our brain works.

[BadRocketsCo.]

That happens a lot when I have my headphones in. I'll be listening to a certain song and it'll sound like someone called my name. Ill take off my headphones and look around.

Yeah, I have that thing with Genesis - "invisible touch" . When I hear my name called, it totally sounds like my dad!

I have once heard my dead grand-grandmothers voice before sleep - that was the creepiest! I have also heard an elevator in a building without elevator

Edited July 24, 2014 by BadRocketsCo.

[BadRocketsCo.]

But I have had a REALLY wierd thing happen with my cousin and his 2 friends. All three of them, at the same time, heard my voice calling my grandma, BUT at the time I was about 10 km away from that house!

Was that some kind of mass-psychosis similar to the stuff we are currently talking about?

[78stonewobble]

Hmm, I must admit I've never experienced that, except when theres people around calling for another guy with the same name. ...

Certain bouts with tinnitus tho, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to around ten minutes and twice I've had an inflamation of my balance nerve, lasting over a month each time -..-.

[SelectHalfling0]

I actually suffer from this. It's called having the same name as 5 other classmates.

Professor: Sam?

All of the Sams: Yes Mr. Professor?

[78stonewobble]

I actually suffer from this. It's called having the same name as 5 other classmates.

Professor: Sam?

All of the Sams: Yes Mr. Professor?

Atleast it's class mates... not random strangers

Could allways change your name to Samwise