About: Multistable auditory perception

Multistable auditory perception is a cognitive phenomenon in which certain auditory stimuli can be perceived in multiple ways. While multistable perception has been most commonly studied in the visual domain, it also has been observed in the auditory and olfactory modalities. In the olfactory domain, different scents are piped to the two nostrils, while in the auditory domain, researchers often examine the effects of binaural sequences of pure tones. Generally speaking, multistable perception has three main characteristics: exclusivity, implying that the multiple perceptions cannot simultaneously occur; randomness, indicating that the duration of perceptual phases follows a random law, and inevitability, meaning that subjects are unable to completely block out one percept indefinitely.