or are you just like,vvy hearing them? ~ Because there does appear to be a difference. In a study published this week in Cell Reports, researchers looked at how a variety of factors influenced sound processing in the brain. That included things like how engaged you are with a task. As well as how much you move around; whether  listening is actually rewarding in some way; and finally your level of arousal, meaning how awake you are. See, each of those things have  been shown by previous studies to actually change the activity of certain groups of auditory neurons. But it’s been hard to understand how those  factors work together, across the whole brain. This study looked at the activity of brain cells in four different areas of mice brains while they took part in a listening task. Each brain area is thought to be responsible for processing sound in different ways, some more complex than others. The mice had been trained to lick a spout when a sound of a certain length and pitch played. In one phase of the experiment, mice would get a sugary drink as a reward when the sound played. But in another phase, they didn’t. The idea was that the mice would be less engaged with the listening task if they weren’t being rewarded for it. Indeed, the researchers saw a  different pattern of brain activity depending on whether a mouse was engaged with the test. They broke this overall activity pattern  down into NUMBER_TOKEN specific sub-patterns based on each of the different aspects of the task. That included engagement, but  also how excited the mice were, whether they were getting a reward, and  the actual movement from licking itself. They saw that mice who were more engaged showed more activity in the area that deals with the earliest and least complex sound processing. This tells the researchers that being engaged with a task actually helps the brain process sounds better. But some of that brain activity came down to all that other stuff – reward, excitement, movement and so on. Licking, for example, might have made areas  of the brain release particular chemicals that gear up auditory neurons for listening. Basically, the researchers say that based on  all the different kinds of patterns they found, actively listening to sound is a really complicated process! The next step is to discover more about how these different groups of neurons affect listening. And who knows, it might just help us  figure out how to tune in better in class. Thanks for watching to this episode of SciShow News, which was supported by NordPass. NordPass is a password manager that lets you securely store and access all your passwords in one place. Maybe you’re like me and have lots of different YouTube channels you need to log into -- a password manager sure would help. Your passwords may not be as secure as they need to be. For example, NordPass’s research, which looks at the top NUMBER_TOKEN most common passwords globally, suggests that tons of people use local sports teams for their passwords. Nordpass can help you generate more complex and secure passwords, and autofill them without needed. You can use a master password to store them all  in a secure vault, that no one but you can see. You can get NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN off a NUMBER_TOKEN year Nordpass Premium  plan, plus an additional NUMBER_TOKEN month for free, if you go to URL_TOKEN and use code SCISHOW to claim this special offer. And if it’s not for you, they offer  a NUMBER_TOKEN day money back guarantee.
START_SPONSOR_TOKEN for watching to this episode of SciShow News, which was supported by NordPass. NordPass is a password manager that lets you securely store and access all your passwords in one place. Maybe you’re like me and have lots of different YouTube channels you need to log into -- a password manager sure would help. Your passwords may not be as secure as they need to be. For example, NordPass’s research, which looks at the top NUMBER_TOKEN most common passwords globally, suggests that tons of people use local sports teams for their passwords. Nordpass can help you generate more complex and secure passwords, and autofill them without needed. You can use a master password to store them all  in a secure vault, that no one but you can see. You can get NUMBER_PERCENTAGE_TOKEN off a NUMBER_TOKEN year Nordpass Premium  plan, plus an additional NUMBER_TOKEN month for free, if you go to URL_TOKEN and use code SCISHOW to claim this special offer. And if it’s not for you, they offer  a NUMBER_TOKEN day money back guarantee. END_SPONSOR_TOKEN