A study conducted by a group of scientists from New York University in Shanghai, China, presented data according to which the "loudness" of thinking can have a direct impact on the perception of real sounds we hear. Thus, the conclusions of the work published in the publication "Nature Human Behavior" on February 19, 2018. , offer a rationale for a new understanding of the principles of active brain function.

Commenting on the research basis of the scientific project, professor of psychology and neurobiology David Poeppel noted that our thoughts, not available to others, for us are like a continuous stream of statements of reality and logical constructions. This, according to the scientist, can explain the phenomenon in which the degree of intensity of thought processes, and literally the "loudness" of thoughts, affects the auditory susceptibility of some external audible stimuli.

So, based on the paradigm of re-perception of images, the team of researchers found that the auditory imagination helps to reduce the level of sensitivity in the perception of the real loudness of the audible range, as evidenced by both the behavioral perception of loudness perception and the results of objective electrophysiological studies using electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography. "Such a pattern assumes that an imaginary mental conversation softens the boundaries of perception of real sounds, therefore, the more expressed and contrasted the imaginary dialogue, namely the" loudness "of its internal perception, the more blurred will be the perception of real sounds," explained the lead author of the study Tian Shin (Tian Xing), associate professor of neurology and cognitive sciences at New York University in Shanghai. Such a phenomenon can be explained by the fact that when imaginary images are generated and external stimuli are perceived, activation of identical auditory zones of the brain occurs. Thus, previously arisen imaginary sound structures activate the same auditory areas, which in the end facilitates adaptation and a decrease in the degree of susceptibility to repeated stimulation of the same nerve structures.

In their study, the authors substantiate the hypothesis previously proposed, according to which perception is the result of the vertical interaction of perception processes-on an upward (for example, cognition) and descending (by the example of sensory processing of external stimuli) principles. According to scientists, such patterns of physiology can be due to the fact that people not only passively perceive and analyze incoming external signals, but also actively analyze and model them, and this forms an individual perception pattern.

The results are the final stage in a series of studies focused on the application of the paradigm of cognitive images in the study of speech control and monitoring of information synthesis processes. At the same time, the authors note that combining monitoring of perception and speech synthesis, the results of the study can expand previously known ideas about the mechanisms of the development of various mental disorders, in particular auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

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