Blog #1: Inquiry Project

My Inquiry question is: How does the brain relate to hearing and why do certain sounds make our skin “crawl?”

This question has always been an area of interest for me because it happens in our everyday day life. I have also noticed that those sounds which make our skin “crawl” seem to almost be the same sounds for many people. So, everyone time I hear a “skin crawling” sound, I always wonder, why? Why this is the reaction that we have? Is it related to a nerve in the human body system? For instance, everyone that I have asked about the nail scratching on black board sounds said they hate to even think about it. They said that the “making skin crawl” term is the perfect way to describe it. I want to find out why our body reacts this way. How come so many people find this sound disturbing?

On the other hand, there are also some sounds that not everyone finds skin “crawling.” Is it because certain elements of the sounds reacts differently with different people’s brains? Or it due to other reasons? How come there are some sounds that most people have reactions with while some sounds only the minority are disturbed by? For example, my mom is very disturbed by the sound of metal spoon scratching on porcelain bowls. However, this sounds is not a problem for me at all. I have asked a couple friends, and some said that they do not mind the sounds, while the other said it is only a little bit skin “crawling.” Another example is that I find the feeling and sound of nails scratching the inside of a duo tang very disturbing. Yet, many of my friends do not feel anything for that. So, another wonder I have is why do people have different levels of endurance for different types of sounds? And do the feeling and sound of the action have any connections in making our skin crawl?