Sunday e-mail 5th May: The Music of Sound
Brilliant changes at the Crime & Psychology Substack; a welcome party for new members
Whatdya mean, Substack? This here’s a Superstack!!
A big welcome to all our new subscribers. So many people of such taste and refinement! Thank you for coming. I’m glad you could make it. Let me take your coat. Please ignore the noise. I’ll be serving some light snacks in a few minutes, but first, would you like an aperitif? White wine perhaps? Whisky, sherry? No, really, I insist. Nothing is too much trouble for Crime & Psychology fans!
What an evening of entertainment I have planned for you! Oh, there will be wine and food, of course, but also stories of criminals and their victims and the psychologists who tried to understand them all.
That racket coming from down the street? I know, it is irritating, isn’t it? They seem to be rebuilding that old place again, you know the one: the building with the turrets and the acrhes. The one with the rusty old ironwork sign that still reads ---CHOLOGY DEPART----. The last place little Johnny was seen, all those years ago, before he set off to do his Masters and was never seen or heard from again… Those cement mixers have been howling all day.
Finished that whisky? It is good, isn’t it? Let me bring you another. Please ignore the sounds those saws make. They are usually finished before the sun goes down. My neighbour said she heard the ghost of a Freudian analyst asking about her mother, but I’m sure she was mistaken. You know what she’s like. Perhaps the sound of building works has disturbed her equilibrium.
Sound, yes. Sound. Weak creatures in a hostile world, we are constantly scanning the environment, listening for anything that may pose a threat. That’s why abrupt noises make concentration so difficult, while their opposite can help some insomniacs to outwit their symptoms. Rain on rooftops, the wind in the trees, the crackling of a fire…all these soft, constant sounds are very soothing. They tell the reptilian part of our brains to calm down, shut off, concentrate. Please, help yourself to an amuse bouche.
I imagine that the first talkies must have delighted audiences immeasurably, don’t you? Imagine the thrill: not only are you seeing Al Jolson up there on the screen, bigger than life, but hearing him too. It must have felt as if a whole other dimension in entertainment had opened.
All this chit-chat by way of introducing a big announcement. Yes, gather round, please do. Can you hear me above the builders’ radio? I’ll try shouting. Sound! Yes, sound! Sound has come to Crime & Psychology!
Eagle-eyed Crime & Psychology fans (not to mention eagle-eared ones) will have seen (or heard) the news already. I’m adding voice-overs to past newsletters. I plan to incorporate them as a regular feature as we go. Would you care to have a quick listen while you enjoy those appetisers? I recommend two newsletters about lobotomies. They are called An Explosively Violent Frontal Lobotomy and The Brain Burglar. (Trust me – this is the only Substack that allows you to listen to An Explosively Violent Frontal Lobotomy in the comfort of your own car!) Those were the first attempts and maybe not the last.
And if you just can’t get enough of hearing Crime & Psychology, drop me a line! Enough demand and I’ll speed up my rate of delivery. (Alternatively, if there’s a big outcry, I’ll stop.)
Another drink? Shall we start the champagne? I spy a waiter bearing trays. Let’s brush the brick-dust off the table, raise a glass to the renovators, and share some hair-raising tales of criminal goings on…
On the subject of Psychology and sound, this week’s boinging bullet list features five important things that you need to know:
1. All five of our senses are tuned to changes in the environment. A change in odour, for instance, may indicate food is imminent, or danger. But have you noticed how quickly you cease to notice an odour that does not change? Psychologists call that process habituation. Our hearing is the fastest and most important of our startle responses. (You’ll have noticed that if you’ve ever accidentally dropped a plate near a cat.) A sudden sound often indicates that a predator is nearby.
2. More on habituation: it relies on a massive collection of neurones at the base of the brain. It is called the cerebellum, which actually means ‘little brain’. People who’ve suffered trauma to the cerebellum lose that habituation response. Williams Syndrome can affect how the cerebellum develops. Sufferers have poor hand-eye coordination, among other symptoms. They may, however, love music - and on occasion their coordination problems disappear when they play their instrument.
3. Music can mimic some of the communicative qualities of spoken speech, of course. Many of the brain centres that are used for processing speech are also used for music. But there’s a difference – music seems superior at activating parts of the brain involved in reward and motivation. It gives us measurable pleasure to synchronise with the beat of music.
4. You may know that the linguist, Noam Chomsky, maintained that the brain is especially receptive to language at a very young age, when a circuit he called the Language Acquisition Device is geared to the On position. The same seems to be true of music. There are numberless kinds of music in the world, and we seem specially receptive to learning the music of our own culture when very young and full of developmental potential.
5. Hearing loss in old age is often a function of the hair cells stiffening in the ear. Stiffness makes them less able to conduct electrical signals to the brain. The damage may not have been caused by environmental noise, either. It may be traced to a variety of other causes, such a high blood pressure (which seems almost to be responsible for most of the bad things in life), diabetes, and age-related changes in our actual DNA. Take antioxidants.
Crime & Psychology! It’s not a Substack! It’s a Superstack! Make sure you don’t miss out! Reserve YOUR copy TODAY! It couldn’t be easier!! Simply belt a blue button below!!