How do we hear time within sounds?

While you listen to a noise, nerve cells in your brain are busy processing sound information and helping you make sense it. One big mystery in the world of hearing research has been how we perceive repeated sounds that hit our ears slowly - like the tapping of a woodpecker on a tree - compared to much faster noises that seem to blend into a continuous tone. UCL's Daniel Bendor has been investigating how the cells in our brains manage to distinguish these different types of sound, and hopes his findings could lead to the development of better hearing aids. Kat Arney went to hear what he had to... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists