What It Means If You Hear Laurel vs. Yanny, According to a Neuroscientist + MORE

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What It Means If You Hear Laurel vs. Yanny, According to a Neuroscientist

– www.health.com

Laurel versus Yanny is dividing the nation. It seems like we had barely settled down from the blue and black (or white and gold?) dress debacle, when YouTube star Cloe Feldman decided to publish a four-second video originally posted on Reddit by user RolandCamry. Within a couple days, the clip asking viewers whether they hear the word “Laurel” or the word “Yanny” has garnered over 100,000 likes on Twitter–and sparked intense debate.

Everyone from Health staffers (full disclosure: I am a Laurel) to Chrissy Teigen and Mindy Kaling can't seem to agree, so we felt it was time to call in an expert. Don Vaughn, PhD, a neuroscientist and musician, is helping us make a sound judgment on the matter.

“It’s a really interesting phenomenon,” he tells Health. The brain tries its best to create "one unified model of the world," he says–but at the end of the day, one person's individual brain is just one individual interpretation, he explains. "Your brain’s job is to construct the most likely reality, so it makes the best guess.” The result? In a split second, you hear either Laurel or Yanny.

RELATED: How to Tell If Your Earbuds Are Hurting Your Hearing

But, Vaughn argues, you can probably hear both.

“If I say, ‘I know you hear it as Yanny, but I want you to sit here and listen to Laurel, I think most people can hear it either way,” he says. “It’s a conflict between our first gut reaction and the fact that there is another interpretation, but it’s inconvenient to do that work.”

In addition to your brain's unique interpretation of the clip, whether you hear Laurel or Yanny also depends on your ability to hear high and low frequencies. Like Teigen told Kaling, “They’re saying younger, more beautiful people hear yanny!!!!!" And she might be onto something.

Inside your ears are small sensors called hair cells. They pick up on sound waves and send them to the brain, Vaughn says. "If you lose all your hair cells you can’t hear.” Noise exposure can damage these hair cells, and they don't grow back.

Vaughn speculates that people who are older and have fewer hair cells are more likely to hear Laurel because they can’t hear the higher frequencies of Yanny. “We know that other animals on the planet specialize in hearing different frequencies," he says. "Some birds only hear high frequencies, and whales hear low-frequency content. It’s not a stretch that some people pay more attention to high frequencies.” The frequencies in the viral clip are extreme, he adds: Most of us are used to hearing more mid-range frequencies, which could make it even trickier to tell if it's Laurel or Yanny.

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As other outlets have noted, playing with the frequencies in the video can make Laurel or Yanny suddenly appear…

Dermaplaning Is the Secret to Brighter, Smoother Skin

– health.com

Even though I'm a huge proponent for everyone wearing as much makeup as they want to, I'm personally of the skin-first philosophy: That is, I prefer to painstakingly fret over my face, lathering all kinds of creams and serums in a quest for what I suppose to be the non-existent "flawless complexion," so I don't need to wear so much makeup.

Lately, I'd noticed my skin, now at the ripe age of 32-years-old, didn't have that same Noxzema-girl luster as it did just a few years ago in my 20s. (Aging is a real thing, you guys.) And while I've enlisted a variety of anti-aging creams approved by top derms and experts alike, I wanted to find a way to get fresh-faced quickly. So when the aesthetician who turned me onto the skin-wonder phenomenon of microneedling let me know of her latest innovation, I had to learn more—and try the at-home treatment for myself. (FYI, here's Everything You Need to Know About Microneedling.)

Dermaplaning, according to Kerry Benjamin, the founder of Stacked Skincare in Santa Monica, California, "gently removes dead skin cell build-up and fine facial hair for a brighter and smoother complexion, while also allowing products to fully soak into the skin, boosting the efficacy of the serums and creams." In medical spas and aesthetic offices, the procedure can cost anywhere from $75 to $200 depending on where you live, but her at-home tool is literally a fraction of the cost, packaged with a trio of replacement blades, too.

Although the treatment has gotten a lot of buzz recently, it isn't entirely groundbreaking. "Beauty bloggers have talked about at-home dermaplaning over the years, but they've used a cheap plastic tool intended to touch up your eyebrows." Definitely do not try that at home, FYI.

"I also think a lot of women are getting over the stigma of 'shaving their face' and realizing that dermaplaning is one of the best treatments to exfoliate the dead skin, and also remove peach fuzz, leaving your skin instantly glowing and dewy," Benjamin said, to which I can't disagree. I mean, at 32, I want skin as smooth as a baby's butt. And no, I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I'll try almost anything (at least once) to get the job done.

Plus, it works on all complexions (unlike laser hair removal, which is best for an extremely specific skin tone and hair type) and takes only five to ten minutes—perfect for those who want smoother, brighter skin but are also too busy (or lazy!) to devote tons of time to beauty treatments. In addition to the Stacked Skincare tool, I also stumbled on one of Sephora's top-selling skin-care tools, the DermaFlash. Similar to the manual dermaplane, this electronically powered model is a souped-up version of the Stacked Skincare tool, except it comes with a set of six blades (you should use about one per week) in addition to an oil-removing cleanser to use beforehand, and a soothing, hydrating cream to apply after completing the at-home treatment…

This Woman Just Proved How Easy It Is to Conceal Postpartum Stretch Marks and Loose Skin on Instagram

– health.com

You already know that a lot of the images you see on social media are posed and unrealistic. But just how easy is it to transform the shape of a woman's body or erase marks from her skin?

That question is addressed in the latest viral transformation photo to hit Instagram. Posted by fitness influencer Laysa Neto, it reveals that using certain camera angles, posing your body, and positioning your clothing can completely alter how you look.

RELATED: Real Women Are Spreading a Message About Body Positivity by Embracing Their Thighbrows

Neto, a 28-year-old from Rhode Island, put three photos of herself together and posted them on Instagram. In the first photo, she is relaxed, revealing what she looks like “99 percent” of the time, she says.

The photo on the right displays her flexing her abs. “I am literally not breathing in the photo,” she admitted in the caption. The image in the middle is her most vulnerable one, as the mother of two grabs her stomach.

“I show my wrinkles and ‘sags’ and extra loose skin from having two kids,” she explained in the caption.

Neto’s post promotes her body-positive approach to health and wellness. Her point is to show her followers that social media is not a realistic depiction of a person’s everyday appearance. 

“[I’ve] been doing a lot more showing all the angles someone can pose or what leggings can do or what [lighting] can do because I don’t do it enough," she wrote. "I still get girls who feel they need to be this picture perfect model and you don’t!”

RELATED: These 13 Women Prove Every Body Is a Bikini Body

Neto tells Health that she was motivated to help women struggling with body image issues, particularly moms, who typically have loose skin or belly flab and feel bad about it when they see selfies of other moms who don't seem to have these postpartum changes.

She wants her followers to know that in many cases, those other images aren't accurate and can do a number on your self-esteem.

“I have the cellulite, I have the stretch marks, I have the wrinkles,” she says. “It may not show in every picture but it’s there. And sometimes we get caught up on who had more stretch marks or who has less stretch marks or who is perfect … it’s not about that. It’s about accepting your body and knowing what it went through and loving your body at any stage.”

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What It Means If You Hear Laurel vs. Yanny, According to a Neuroscientistwww.health.com
Dermaplaning Is the Secret to Brighter, Smoother Skinhealth.com
This Woman Just Proved How Easy It Is to Conceal Postpartum Stretch Marks and Loose Skin on Instagramhealth.com

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