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Greg Evans
Jul 29, 2020
A viral video has got people hearing two completely different words and its all thanks to an auditory trick.
In a TikTok video shared by the user Emily Sophie asks the viewer to read one of two words, either: 'green needle' or 'brain storm' but they will only hear one of them and not both.
As you can see the video has since ended up on Twitter where it has been viewed more than two million times and people are truly perplexed.
Been blowing my mind all morning https://t.co/605GEaCegh— Lewis Mason (@Lewis Mason) 1595936499
Oh thats messing with my head 😳🤣🤣 https://t.co/98inhqcqH2— Mel (@Mel) 1595943176
@AlexShawESPN But what does it mean if you can hear both???? Or if you can’t??? More questions than answers— Natalie Sawyer 💙 (@Natalie Sawyer 💙) 1595863404
Some thought that they had sussed it out.
@AlexShawESPN I’ve sussed it! It says green needle first then people will automatically turn their attention to bra… https://t.co/LXMYlBj25K— Jamie Anderson (@Jamie Anderson) 1595926498
While others found a way of hearing slightly different words.
@AlexShawESPN You also hear Green Storm or Brain Needle if you think that— PB (@PB) 1595859680
This isn't a particularly new trick at all. It first emerged on social media back in 2018 and was actually from a YouTube video of a Ben 10 toy (which you can see at the top of this article). That video would suggest that it is saying 'Brainstorm' as it is a name of a character from the animated show.
The truth of the matter is that it is all about acoustic patterns and what the brain expects to hear regardless of the sound that you actually hear. Professor Valerie Hazan, who is a hearing and phonetic sciences expert from University College London is quoted in a 2018 Huffington Post article as saying:
The reason that a person can see their perception switch without explanation may also mean that our ears and brain have latched on to the other acoustic pattern than the one they were previously latching on to.
The video brings to mind the 'Yanny or Laurel' clip which also emerged in 2018 which also caused people to hear two different words. Still, they are yet to cause the uproar and debate that the great colour of the dress picture did in 2015.
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