New research by the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris used random noise played as a sound to probe how the human brain acquires auditory memories.

In the experiment, when memories were formed, they emerged rapidly, performance became abruptly near-perfect, and multiple noises were remembered for several weeks.

The researchers propose that rapid sensory plasticity could explain how the auditory brain creates useful memories from the ever-changing, but sometimes repeating, acoustical world.