THC:ThePsychoacousticEnhancer
In the space of an hour several human lives are lived Charles Baudelaire
Some time ago I was telling a friend of mine that marijuana seemed to help us to perceive sounds better, as if it were equalizing our hearing.
“Sounds like a typical stoner argument,” she said to me.
Psychiatrist Frederick Melges says that by smoking marijuana the subject becomes less capable of integrating past, present, and future, and comes to concentrate more on the instant, on the now. Is that why consuming it triggers the enjoyment of playing and listening to music?
According to Jörg Fachner, in 1944 Life magazine stated that with marijuana “the swing musician ascends new peaks of virtuosity.”1 That is, musical language is expanded by the consumption of cannabis, as though smoking allowed new sonic universes to be understood. Sebastián Marincolo has studied a potential mental enhancement related to cannabis. He comments that, while inexperienced users may become disoriented and forget the beginning of a chain of thought or the original
1 “The Space between the Notes Research on Cannabis and Music Perception,” 11th IASPM Conference, Day Two (Subjectivities and Identities), 312.
framework of a developing discourse, more experienced users feel that their stream of thought is less constrained, allowing them to find new connections and patterns.
All this motivated me to investigate whether, beyond the great musical works created thanks to pot, there were any studies that could explain the reasons for this phenomenon.
What are the effects of pot on our auditory perception?
A few years ago on YouTube I saw a video of a squirrel who was high… For a few moments I can imagine the squirrel, Hildegard von Bingen, and Snoop Dogg in a bucolic landscape, rolling a blunt.
An image for another text, perhaps.
In 1974 a research team from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sao Paulo carried out a study called “Human tonal preferences as a function of frequency under δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol.”2 The title says it all: a study to see if hearing sensitivity changes after ingesting THC, the component of pot that makes you feel stoned. To do so, they organized small groups that were given 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg of THC as well as a placebo.
The test was simple: the subjects had to listen to different tones before and after ingesting THC. They then answered which tones they found most pleasurable. The following table shows the results of the tests on three subjects taken as examples. The clearest difference is between the consumption of subject A, who only took the placebo, and subject C after ingesting 40 mg of THC.
Subject C shows a sharp drop in tonal preference around 400 Hz and a peak in tonal preference between 60 and 100 Hz. The drop at 400 Hz is significant, as it is in a frequency range where many musical instruments are filled, thus creating a
2 Maria Regina C de Souza, Isac Germano Karniol, and Dora F Ventura, “Human tonal preferences as a function of frequency under δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol,” in PharmacologyBiochemistryandBehavior,vol 2, no. 5, September-October, 1974, 607-611.
sound-masking effect: muddy or unclear music. On the other hand, between 60 and 100 Hz the rumbling of sounds is enhanced. We could say that the latter is a group of frequencies that are felt in a more tactile way, that embrace the body. Lastly, it was determined that the most significant change after smoking was the preference for high frequencies, mainly 5,000 Hz.
Jörg Fachner carried out another study on the subject: “An Ethno-Methodological Approach to Cannabis and Music Perception, with EEG Brain Mapping in a Naturalistic Setting.”3 In this study Fachner expands on my question.
Is there research on changes in auditory perception regarding the duration, pitch, volume, and timbre of a sound when using cannabis?
This is what Fachner found (with a few points of my own).
Φ Duration: Melges et al. described, between 1970 and 1971, the effects of cannabis on the perception of time as an acceleration of the internal clock, experienced as an expansion of time. Such an expansion may lead to a greater temporary understanding of the space between the notes (as proposed by Whiteley, 1992). This would help more experienced cannabis users to perceive the structure of sounds more effectively (Becker, 1953).
Φ Volume: In 1969 Caldwell et al. reported changes in threshold intensity after cannabis use. Globus et al. suggested in 1978 that a virtual expansion of hearing measurements could be responsible for the experience of a greater perception of loudness.
Φ Tone: Martz investigated in 1972 the threshold under the effects of THC and concluded (as did the aforementioned Sao Paulo team) that we become more sensitive
3 “An Ethno-Methodological Approach to Cannabis and Music Perception, with EEG Brain Mapping in a Naturalistic Setting,” in AnthropologyofConsciousness,vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 78–103.
to high-pitched sounds, particularly from 6 kHz upwards, as if the equalizer in our ears were doing a “high shelf.”
[Imagen 2: high shelf]
This is what a “high shelf” looks like on a digital controller
Jörg Fachner sums up the point thusly: “Higher frequencies express the location of sound sources and the spectrum of ‘overtone’ sounds”; thus, we can differentiate when a note is played on a guitar or a piano. It is likewise these frequencies that provide information about the spatial location of the sounds. In short, “Cannabis seems to act as a psycho-acoustic enhancer, or exciter, equalizer.”
If you follow this QR you will find two tracks in which I demonstrate examples of a “high shelf.” The first track (“Waves and Birds in Boca del Rio (Original)”) is an unfiltered audio capture; the second (“High Shelf”) is the same track, and yet all frequencies from 6 kHz and above are highlighted.
Let’s continue with Fachner’s findings:
Φ Timbre: Thaler et al., in 1973, as well as Fitzpatrick and Eviatar, in 1980, investigated speech discrimination rates under the effects of cannabis and reported significant changes at different sound levels, even in hearing impaired individuals. Subjects showed a higher rate of speech perception at 10 and 40 dB SL, 4 even when the tones were covered by noise. In 1970 Rodin et al. reported a change in prosodic structure with patterns of response close to singing. In studies conducted between 1971 and 1975, Tart reported that after consuming cannabis, people understand better the words sung in songs and are more sensitive to changes in their own voice. Perhaps these changes in perception and prosodic structure influenced a certain personal sound and timbre among some jazz players (according to Mezzrow, 1946). The study by Maria
4 SL stands for “sensation level;” thus, dB SL is equivalent to decibelsofhearingsensation.
Regina C. de Souza also points to a change in musical genre preferences, indicating a possible restructuring in the recognition of the harmonics of sounds.5
Finally, Herbert Moskowitz and William McGlothlin, of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, carried out the research project “Effects of Marihuana on Auditory Signal Detection.”6 Two groups were formed for the study: one was given alfalfa as a placebo and the other was given different amounts of THC depending on their weight. Each group performed two exercises. In the first one, the subject was asked to concentrate and try to recognize the presence or absence of a specific tone in a burst of noise. In the second, the subject was asked to repeat six digits that were presented simultaneously with the noise burst. From the data collected, it was concluded that owing to a change in the sensitivity of perceptual discrimination, marijuana significantly decreases the detection of auditory signals in both types of attention—concentrated and unconcentrated. Thus, there is no evidence to suggest that auditory sensory processes are affected by marijuana. This means that pot affects aural perception, not the auditory apparatus.
We can conclude from these three studies that when we are baked, the equalization of our ears changes, and so we experience the soundsphere differently. More precisely, our ear enhances treble and bass, much like what is called the smiley face curve. In other words, being baked helps us to perceive in a more detailed way the source and location of sounds owing to the increase in treble. At the same time, it helps us to feel more depth just because of the increase in bass.
5 A good part of the state of the art described in the previous paragraphs comes from an edited translation of the aforementioned study by Jörg Fachner (see note 3) Out of respect for the authors, we have kept their surnames and publication years, as compiled by Fachner Nevertheless, in order not to clutter this space, we have decided to avoid displaying the complete references of each publication
6 “Effects of Marihuana on Auditory Signal Detection,” in Psyehopharmacologia,No 40, 1974, pp 137-145.