Why do we hear someone calling our name when we enter the wilderness?

Many foresters have recounted how when they were walking in the forest, there was no one around, but suddenly they heard a small voice calling their name from behind.

This is said to be one of the most chilling situations that junglers often encounter. Without knowing scientific explanations, everyone who has had this experience will always be in a state of insecurity throughout the journey.

In fact, the phenomenon of hearing mysterious voices or noises is called "auditory pareidolia." The sources of these noises vary widely. These may include electric fans; water flow; aircraft engines; the noise of the washing machine.

In addition, auditory pareidolia has an additional side effect, where people see faces or imaginary images from vaguely gathered visual and auditory information.

Vague sounds or images can create mistaken assumptions.

Such hallucinations are common in a variety of psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Non-psychiatric hallucinations have also been reported in people with hearing loss, although this condition, known as negative ear syndrome , is relatively rare and has not been fully researched.

But people with and without these conditions can have auditory pareidolia.

The sounds that people hear when experiencing auditory pareidolia are not entirely fabricated by their brains. Rather, they stem from a misunderstanding of real sounds.

For example, in the forest there will always be different sounds made from leaves and animals. When these distant sounds reach the foresters' ears, they will imagine that someone is calling their name from afar.

Why do people in the forest often imagine the sound of calling their name instead of other sounds? This is explained because in everyday life, the sound of calling a name is the sound most often heard by humans and is also the easiest for us to pay attention to.

This means, auditory pareidolia represents the human brain's constant effort to understand and find patterns in the surrounding world. It especially occurs when perceptible noises are obscured by the background noise of a noisy environment, such as a restaurant or bar.

In the woods is where auditory pareidolia often occurs.

In these cases, the brain uses a process called contrast gain control , adjusting the sensitivity of brain cells that respond to auditory and visual data so that they can adapt to the input. continuous information.

Although widely reported, auditory pareidolia is not as thoroughly studied by neuroscientists as its visual counterpart.

That's partly because the triggers that can cause people to mishear certain sounds aren't as consistent or predictable as the triggers that can cause them to misidentify objects in the dark.

Normally, people will tend to choose something familiar to themselves to format the vague sounds or images in their heads.

Therefore, if you suddenly hear your name being called from the depths of the forest, foresters should feel calm and have nothing to worry about.