Listen up Men....or else

This Just in......
Men hear women's musical voices, just not lyrics
"You don't listen."
Chances are you hear that phrase on a regular basis if a)you're a man, and b) you spend a significant amount of time around a woman. Men seem to miss important facts and sometimes entire conversations directed at them by the fairer sex all the time. (amen)
Many women seem inclined to chalk up this lack of attention to laziness, selfishness, and a willful refusal to listen. Many simply call it "being a man."
Men actively work to bridge this gap by looking for excuses. Now science has provided a significant boost to the art of excuse-making by examining how the brain processes speech recognition. Solid evidence shows the female voice (like everything else about women) is complicated for men to decipher.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England studied the brains of a dozen men as they listened to taped voice recordings and found a startling difference in the way the male brain processed male and female voices.
Male voices were processed at the back of the brain in an area sometimes called the "mind's eye," where we compare experiences to ourselves. That means that the recognition process for the male voice is pretty straightforward.
When the test subjects listened to female voices, those sounds were processed by the auditory section of the brain, which deciphers more complex sounds such as music. Researchers concluded that the male brain has to work a lot harder to make out what a woman is saying than when the conversation is with another man.
Furthermore, differences in a woman's throat and vocal chords mean her voice produces a more complex range of sounds. I think the comparison between women's voices and music is appropriate. Most men enjoy how a woman's voice sounds but often don't hear what she says. (amen)
We hear them 'singing," but we don't always remember or pay much attention to the "lyrics."

By Bill Ferguson, a columnist for the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph.

Female Muzak?

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga 2005-08-20 12:16 ]

I just seem to tune out ALL human voices.

Very interesting. I'm going to start writing notes and place them all over the house.

Please take out trash!
Please turn off coffee maker!
Please put dirty clothes in hamper!

Since, it appears that I'm definitely being tuned out.

Maybe we sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown.

What did you say?
Could you sing that again please?

...yes dear...hmm?...sure, I'll do that right away...hmm?...yes dear...as soon as the game's over...

Her name is Aphrodite and she rides a crimson shell,
You know you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses, how his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.

-E. Clapton

My wife and I were vacationing several years ago down at Walt Disney World. We were in EPCOT and had just stepped off the World of Motion attraction when my wife mentioned that she thought the recorded female voice giving the disembarking instructions inside of our vehicle said something funny. I replied that there was no female recording, it was a male voice that had given the instructions. We argued about it for a few minutes and ended up riding again just to listen to the recorded instructions. Turns out they were first given in a male voice and then followed by a female.

So during our initial ride thru, after I had listened to the male instructions and began to hear the female voice, I completely tuned it out and didn't even process that she had spoken. On the other hand, my wife clearly heard both sets of instructions. This is the big joke around my house now and she never lets me forget it. Unfortunately, she was right all along (GULP) and I was not listening to the female.

Zulu, you're experience is a perfect example. :lol: Thanks for sharing.
There's also been studys which attribute lasting marriages to the ability of the man to "tune out".
Remember the Cheech and Chong lyrics, "My brain is like a sieve" BAWDAHBA BAWDAHBAH BAW BAW BAWWW. But never mind that probably wasn't about listening now was it?