A hallucinogenic drug that messes just with your ears?

A fascinating excerpt about a hallucinogenic drug called DiPT that only causes hearing distortions – from p310 of the book Hallucinations: Research and Practice:

A member of the tryptamine chemical family, diisopropyltryptamine (DiPT) is a fascinating substance because, unlike most hallucinogens, its effect are predominantly auditory. It is also probably less sensitive than other hallucinogens to the mindset of the user, the setting in which it is ingested, and other psychological considerations, perhaps because the auditory system has become less salient to the human organism as we have evolved into a vision based species.

In general, auditory pitch is perceived as lower than normal, and harmonious sounds lose their resonance with one another. This dissonance is even perceived by people with perfect pitch, which has some implications about where in the processing stream DiPT’s effects occur. Voices are also altered and disharmonious with each other.

DiPT has a few other known effects; it would seem to call for further investigation from those interested in the neurology of sound, music and verbal language processing. For example, it would be fascinating to know the effects of this substance on perceptions of tonal languages such as Chinese, Huichol, or Dogon; would it alter the words perceived as being spoken?

-Mind Hacks
via @JadAbumrad 

thekidshouldseethis:

Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid (like ketchup, custard, toothpaste, starch suspensions, paint, blood and shampoo) that is made of 1 part of water to 1.5–2 parts of corn starch, and is used to show the force of sound vibrations. When sitting on subwoofers, it thickens from the force, and looks like it’s dancing or coming to life. 

via Milk and Cookies.

20 plays

Math pattern found in nature also found in music. Daniel Levitin has found, hidden within nearly 2,000 pieces of classical music, a mathematical pattern that not only holds constant over 400 years of musical history, but also corresponds to fluctuations in everything from the human heartbeat to traffic flow on busy highways. - Cape Breton Post

Heard this on NPR this morning. 

The Eerie Sounds of Saturn’s Radio Emissions

Click through to hear the recording. 

Your Brain on Music: A Story of Song Meets Science

Daniel Levitin, Author, This Is Your Brain on Music
In musical conversation with Alex de Grassi

(Source: youtube.com)

What is up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency, and Pitch) (by Vihart) (via @plural)

Talking tape makes it possible to mechanically create sound from various objects. With one hand, you hold the top of the tape. With the other, you slide your thumbnail down the ribbon against the grooves. Do this and you hear, “Congratulations!” The ribbon has grooves just like a traditional record. When your fingernail is pulled down the ribbon, it causes sound vibrations. The card works as the amplifier to make the sound louder. You can replace the card with a plastic cup, a balloon, a greeting card, or just about anything. The ribbons can be made to play any sound you can record; however, the manufacturer claims voices work better than music. (via Inventables)

lookhigh:

E.T., Phone Collect

If aliens come calling, we might not hear them.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the SETI Institute — the one made famous by the movie Contact — has put its program to find alien life on hold. In an April 22 letter SETI sent to significant supporters, Tom Pierson, SETI’s CEO announced that beginning this week, the Allen Telescope Array “has been placed into hibernation due to funding shortfalls for operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) where the ATA is located.”

(via NPR)

(via @alexanderchen)

Well, the short answer is .093 seconds. That’s about the shortest amount of time mathematicians need to generate a full analysis of a sound’s component frequencies. (via Rhizome | How Large is an Atom of Music? A Tour through Today’s Spectral Music and Software at UCSD)

More info after the jump.

Before a musical pattern can be desired by the brain, it must play hard to get.

— 

(via @litherland)

Click-thru for the rest of the article. It’s an interesting read.

The Science of Eavesdropping | Wired Science | Wired.com