Can you hear this silent GIF?

[Edvard]

Look at this GIF. There’s no sound, but most people who see it hear a “thudding” in their head each time the bouncing structure hits the ground. Why?
...
This illusion is an example of synesthesia, or when the senses — like hearing and sight — get crossed in the brain, he explained in an email to The Verge.

https://www.theverge...oscience-synesthesia

from CodeProject News

[4wd]

Nope.

A more important question is: Can you hear it if you're deaf?

[wraith808]

Nope also.  I saw the tower fall and the visual cues- but not aurally.

[tomos]

I didnt hear it either -- but did somehow sense the thump, like I were standing there and could feel the movement in my body.

[Carol Haynes]

Yes 

Oddly I could still hear it when I closed the page - does this make me weird?

[kfitting]

I didnt hear it either -- but did somehow sense the thump, like I were standing there and could feel the movement in my body.

-tomos (December 07, 2017, 01:14 PM)

I agree with this. Mine was not so much an audible sound, but more of a feeling.

[Edvard]

This is a good approximation of the sound I hear when I watch the gif:
https://soundcloud.c...martin-4/jumprope-10


... and now you do too 

[Edvard]

Yes 

Oddly I could still hear it when I closed the page - does this make me weird?

-Carol Haynes (December 07, 2017, 06:42 PM)

I'm not objective enough to judge whether it makes you weird or not, but for me, the sound cuts off as soon as I scroll away from the image, like 'out of sight, out of mind'.  Literally.  I think THAT's weird.

I didnt hear it either -- but did somehow sense the thump, like I were standing there and could feel the movement in my body.

-tomos (December 07, 2017, 01:14 PM)

I agree with this. Mine was not so much an audible sound, but more of a feeling.

-kfitting (December 07, 2017, 07:26 PM)

The weird thing is, I can say I don't actually hear it; as in, I don't perceive it as an audible sensation originating at my ears, but I do get the distinct feeling that it's what I should hear, and therefore some part of my brain generates it and delivers it to the audio decoder part, and is therefore more of a feeling than an actual audio hallucination.  However, it's distinct enough that I can definitely say that loop I posted sounds very close to what I am perceiving as a result of the whole mess.

[ConstanceJill]

Hi there ^^

[…]... and now you do too 

-Edvard (December 08, 2017, 12:35 AM)

Hmm nope, sorry to disappoint but even after listening to the sound, I still don't hear anything when watching the .gif :p

[wraith808]

This is a good approximation of the sound I hear when I watch the gif:
https://soundcloud.c...martin-4/jumprope-10


... and now you do too 

-Edvard (December 08, 2017, 12:35 AM)

Thanks for that.  I was wondering if the phenomena was just more subtle, so I didn't recognize it.  That's not subtle, and I don't hear it even now.

[Deozaan]

I don't really hear it, but I do get some kind of sensation that's hard to explain (could be an acoustic reflex^w). That said, this one does more for me than the power lines one:

https://twitter.com/...s/937677036923113472

Some people suggest that the auditory sensation is all in the camera shake (perhaps triggering the acoustic reflex). Edvard, can you still hear it with this one?

https://twitter.com/...s/937613516927889408

[mouser]

It does seem like its all in the camera shake.. Yeah I don't hear anything but I kind of get a funny vibration-like feeling.
Not so surprising -- the brain integrates all sorts of information in order to interpret incoming sensory information and vision is our dominant sense.

[Edvard]

I don't really hear it, but I do get some kind of sensation that's hard to explain (could be an acoustical reflex^w). That said, this one does more for me than the power lines one:

https://twitter.com/...s/937677036923113472

Some people suggest that the auditory sensation is all in the camera shake (perhaps triggering the acoustic reflex). Edvard, can you still hear it with this one?

https://twitter.com/...s/937613516927889408

-Deozaan (December 08, 2017, 04:40 PM)

For the first one, I still hear a low decaying "thuddd" when Totoro hits the ground, but I also hear the sign rattling around; kind of a brief "pen rattling in a plastic cup" sort of sound.  For the second one, the effect is much more muted than the original; kind of flicking the end of a rubber eraser. 

Again, it doesn't come from my ears, but somewhere... deeper; more like sensations than anything, but I do perceive distinct characteristics to them depending on the visual stimulus.  Maybe like Mouser said "It's all in the camera shake", like the camera shake is the stimulus, and the noise is the response, and in some people the association is stronger than the observation.  Or something.  I'd be interested in seeing those GIFs without the shake and see what happens.

Thanks for the Acoustical Reflex link, I've noticed that sort of sensation when trying to listen to something I don't want to listen to, like when someone is loudly expressing an opinion that makes me uncomfortable.  Like when my wife talks about going Vegan. 

[IainB]

I suspect that, once it has first been suggested that one might hear something, the level of one's suggestibility will then determine whether one hears something, or not - i.e., suggestion can be a pretty powerful sort of hypnotist's psychological trick.

It's nonsense anyway, as everyone knows that electricity pylons don't play skip-rope. That would be just plain silly, as my 7 y/o son has just pointed out to me. I think he might be right.