October 23, 2009
Q. Long before there was a Bing Crosby, how was the famous 18th-century composer Ludwig van Beethoven given to what today has been called the “White Christmas effect”?
A. When researchers experimented with the popular Crosby song back in the 1960s, they found some test subjects reported hearing it at lower and lower volumes, in some cases even when it was never turned on, says Oliver Sacks in “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.” One time, a highly musical friend of Sacks reported enjoying a favorite Mozart record, then discovered when he went to turn it over that he had never put it on. Under proper motivation, it seems, the mind will fill in blank auditory spaces or silent gaps embedded in familiar songs, even detectable by functional MRI scans.
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