Innate responses to sound (Ross Rochford )

Subject: Innate responses to sound
From:    Ross Rochford  <digiology@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Thu, 22 May 2008 00:03:15 +0100


Hi,





I am considering for my thesis an exploration of innate responses to
sounds, that is, unlearned and presumably having evolved to serve some
function. The idea of the evolutionary lag where we have evolved to
adapt to an environment that existed thousands of years ago interests
me, I wonder what the implications of this are for how we respond to
sound and how music affects our mood.



I am looking for papers (or books) on responses to sound that are
likely to be innate in humans. Also papers that discuss the
evolutionary origins of our responses to sound and music and how our
past environment (and tasks therein, e.g. hunting) have shaped them. I
am hoping for the kinds of explanations that have been proposed for
arachnophobia, that a fear of spiders had survival advantage as we may
have evolved among poisonous spiders.

While researching, I found a suggestion that our response to nails on
a blackboard is because of the similarity (of its spectrum) to the
warning call of macaque monkeys. Although I don't believe this is an
adequate explanation (the warning calls don't produce the same
response as nails on a blackboard in humans), it is similar to what I
am looking for.





Any suggestions on where to start are greatly appreciated.







Ross