The mind perceives low-frequency sounds in a very totally different approach than different sounds. Maybe that is why some folks react extra to them.
Sound beneath 16 Hz is what professionals prefer to name infrasound. This is sound that’s typically thought-about inconceivable to listen to. But that is not the case.
“Humans can actually perceive infrasound if the sound level is high enough,” says Carlos Jurado, postdoctoral fellow on the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science on the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Some are extra delicate to low-frequency noise. For instance, it will probably come from air flow programs, warmth pumps, wind generators, trade, transport, mills or transformers. But that is troublesome to measure, as a result of the sound is commonly perceived extra as a hum or bodily sensation than extra high-frequency sound does.
Didn’t know the way we understand the sound
Scientists have lengthy been unsure about how we understand infrasound. Now Jurado has investigated the case along with Torsten Marquardt from University College London.
Recently, their outcomes have been revealed in an article within the Nature journal Scientific Reports .
“Our research suggests that infrasound is registered in the inner ear in a different way than normal sound does,” says Marquardt.
Inside the internal ear, there are specialised sensory hair cells which are completely essential for the transmission of sound alerts to the mind.
“But at very low frequencies, the signals to these hair cells become too weak, and other hair cells, which normally contribute to the hearing process, can still pick them up,” Jurado explains.
“These support cells, which normally receive signals from the brain to regulate hearing sensitivity, generate electric fields that are strong enough to trigger nerve signals that are sent to the brain, so that infrasound is perceived,” says Marquardt.
More of a sense than some other sound
Maybe that is why additional low-frequency sounds really feel totally different than different sounds do.
“This may explain why infrasound is experienced differently than normal sound. Small increases in sound pressure quickly make the sound much louder. We can now easily explain this phenomenon as a natural consequence of our new findings,” says Jurado.
The findings might also assist to grasp why some individuals are bothered by low-frequency noise, whereas others don’t, because the newly found mechanism might fluctuate from individual to individual.
Reference: Jurado, C., Marquardt, T. Infrasound sensation is mediated by intracochlear electrical potentials . Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-50179-w