A bitter account of living with misophonia, sensory scientists develop a taste test that can measure sensitivity in preschoolers, and different brain areas have been identified as critical in temporal processing

“Misophonia is a troublesome disorder. My sensory issues go far beyond the grasp of sights and sounds. I feel it every time I touch water that is too hot or cold. I feel it when velvet touches my skin and makes me cringe. If I step out into the hot summer heat after my blissfully air-conditioned atmosphere I can feel the hold on my body. All of my senses are subject to sensory overload and under-load. If I do too much I feel my body pull out from under me. My back crumbles under the pressure.”

Tags:

A.I. hears music in your head, businesses use music to affect tasting experience, and the brain processes sight and sound the same

“Music menus: Restaurants that are putting more emphasis on their soundtracks—aiming to create the right mood rather than just muffling the conversations of diners and other background noise—include renowned Los Angeles restaurant Vespertine, where a series of seven tracks is heard before, during and after the multicourse meal.

“Music, for sure, is arguably the most important part of my creative process,” says chef Jordan Kahn.

Music is hard to miss at Vespertine, where the $250 tasting menu is currently 19 courses. Kahn says he aims “to use sound to enhance and augment the dining experience, not to distract the guest.””

Tags:

Illustrating environmental interaction, floral foam is the new slime, and a dog’s nose is 100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s

“The people in my illustrations are almost caricatures that presume and hint at deeper stories,” says Nathan. “I write a little so I naturally seek narratives even in non-sequential images.” The characters in Noise Complaint for example, span the human demographic, with a couple fighting next to their young child, boys playing loudly in a rock-band, two women doing DIY and someone putting out a fire — the characters are thoroughly human, relatable and despite Nathan’s high level of illustrative detail, leave space for the viewers own storytelling and interpretation.”

Tags: