Frank Cottrell-Boyce wonders at our recognising voices.
What an extraordinary thing it is that we recognise individual human voices. That I can make the atoms in the air vibrate so precisely that they make your ear drum vibrate in such a way as to tell your brain not only what I’m saying, not only how I’m saying it, but who I am. And this is true not just of people we know. I can walk into the kitchen, hear a voice on the radio and know immediately it’s, let’s say, Grant Shapps. Why do I have this ability? What’s the evolutionary advantage of being able to recognise that – 200 miles away – Grant Shapps is talking?
