You're walking through the woods with no one else around when you hear it: Faintly, from the background hum of the forest — impossibly, hair-raisingly — comes the sound of someone calling your name.
Auditory pareidolia isn't considered a type of auditory hallucination, which occurs when a person hears sounds that don't exist in reality and transpire appear without any external stimulus, such as white noise. Such hallucinations are common in various mental conditions, including schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over."Think of your brain as having this big database of patterns. All the words that you know, and you've ever heard in your life are in there," Neil Bauman, an audiologist and CEO of the Center for Hearing Loss Help based in Washington, told Live Science."It chooses what it thinks is the best pattern. That best pattern may not be right at all.
King attributes auditory pareidolia to our brain's constant attempts to make sense of and find patterns in the world around us. It can be especially likely to occur when somewhat recognizable noises are masked by the background hum of a noisy environment, such as a restaurant or a bar.