Is that your cell phone ringing? A neuroscience study conforms the human brain seems wired to hear familiar noises, such as a person's name or phone tone, faster than others.

In the current Journal of Neuroscience, a team led by Anja Roye of Germany's University of Leipzig, tested familiar and unfamiliar ringtone recognition in 12 men and women wearing headphones and brain-wave-reading electroencephalograms.

"The analyzed evoked (electroencephalogram) responses were significantly increased for the personally significant sound," found the researchers.

The study volunteers reconized their own ringer about 40 microseconds sooner than unfamiliar ones. "When a stimulus matches a sound template currently held in short-term memory, i.e., the target sound, it may activate a network of distinct (brain) areas that give rise to a fast allocation of attention and trigger the associated motor-response," says the study. A similar mechanism may explain our ability to hear our own name called amid a din of conversation, the authors suggest.

Analyzing brain-wave patterns, the team suggests a "passive listening" network of brain cells reside in portions of the left side of the brain poised for familiar sounds. Asking volunteers to actively listen for familiar sounds also fired up a right-side part of the brain.

"In sum, this study provides evidence that incoming acoustic information is matched with existing memory templates representing the specific, personally significant, and behaviorally relevant stimulus," concludes the study.

In other words, we are always waiting for someone to call our name, and recognize it faster than anything else.

By Dan Vergano