I had a professor this past year that told a story one day. Her son sustained an injury that left permanent ringing in one of his ears. The constant ringing distracted him throughout the day and then kept him up at night with its persistance. Eventually, he went to have it checked out. I don't remember what she said had caused the problem, but the doctor's treatment is what's important. There was no treatment. The doctor said that within a month, the boys brain would tune out the ringing. Essentially, it would stop "hearing" that signal. And that's what happened.
The ringing is still there, but he will never hear it again. Your brain conditions itself to ignore repetitive signals like that. That's pretty awesome.
This concept has some application:
1. The prevalence of terrible music - Top 40 music is everywhere. For the most part, it is terrible music. Since I try to avoid it, when I do hear it I notice how bad it is - how repetitive and unoriginal it all is. Is it possible, because so many people only listen to that music, that their brains are conditioned to ignore certain aspects of the music? In that case, it wouldn't be because they have bad taste, but because they have no taste... Bizarre concept.
2. The importance of listening to different types of music - While I was in school, I often listened to music while doing homework and studying. However, I could only listen to certain albums for this. They were albums that I was familiar with. I couldn't take a Frank Zappa album that I just got and do homework while listening to it. I would pay far too much attention to the music. My first few times through an album need to be almost entirely without distraction because I focus so much on them. However, after listening to an Explosions in the Sky album, or even an August Burns Red album, time after time, I could have the music playing and be able to ignore it and actually do work. I would postulate that that is because my brain was so familiar with the material that it was easier to ignore it.
