How long does it take sound to be recognized by the brain?

Answer 1

20 to 30 milliseconds is the figure I've always heard. About the same as it takes to recognize (perceive) any of the other senses.


Doug

Answer 2

Both of the above are correct, in a way...

"Recognition" assumes familiarity. The more familiar you are with a sound, the more quickly you can recognize it. I have to explain some of these concepts to my patients who are getting hearing aids for the first time, and have to re-learn how to deal with all the sounds around them, since many noises have faded from their perception.

From the time we are in the womb, we are hearing and learning new sounds. As toddlers, we look for sound to try to figure out what it is. Take an airplane flying overhead as an example: a 2 year-old looks up and hollers, "Airplane!" every time one flies by; but before long they hardly even notice and it just becomes part of the background din.

I had a young guy yesterday - just in his mid 30s, who has some hearing loss from noise exposure, and he was amazed that he could hear me turning the pages in a book -- until that moment, he was not aware that he could no longer hear that sound, but he was young enough to remember that it actually is a "normal" sound to hear.

Some studies that we do in measuring the neurological response to sounds look out as far as 300-400 milliseconds in latency, so processing continues well beyond 20-30 ms. But a sound that you are familiar with does not require such processing, because it has been processed so many times before, that recognition occurs much more rapidly.

Answer 3

It depends on the pitch or loudness. Dogs can hear sounds that are out of range for people to hear. A "dog whistle" is silent to humans when properly played but dogs hear it easily. Sound travels at the sped of sound so when a jet crashes the sound barrier with a sonic boom it takes time to reach human ears thousands of feet below on the Earth's surface.

Answer 4

Depends on if you know the sound or not. lol