# Subsonic Sounds / Effects on Humans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2002, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155 "2002-10-07T05:22:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/1 "2002-10-07T05:22:40Z")
I’ve heard people claim that subsonic sounds can cause people to lose bowel control while the sound emits. However, I looked for info on this and every site I found which supported it, didn’t look very credible. Anyone know anything about this? ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/2 "2002-10-07T05:35:02Z")
You might try searching the term “infrasonic.” Subsonic means slower than sound, which is by definition something other than sound. ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/3 "2002-10-07T05:47:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*[Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) \* > \*\*sub·son·ic Pronunciation Key (sb-snk) > adj. > > 1. Of less than audible frequency. > \*\* Either way, I was referring to extremely low frequencies, which cannot be heard by humans. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/4 "2002-10-07T05:49:21Z")
Infrasonic or infrasound will find you some stuff, but a lot of it is a bit quackish too. Although it does sound stupid, subsonic does mean ‘of less than audible frequency’ as well as the more logical slower than the speed of sound. Supersonic has the same duality. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/5 "2002-10-07T06:10:15Z")
Oddly, I came across a site the other day offering a “mosquito repellant” programme for download (the frequency of the sound is supposed to disorient the mosquitoes). If, in fact, very low frequency sounds do cause lack of bowel control (I’ve heard of ultra high frequency sounds being tested as a military weapon - supposedly causing acute vomiting), then I suspect some enterprising spammer would attached them to emails by now (not to mention the skiddies would have imbedded them on hacked websites all over the place). ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/6 "2002-10-07T06:15:36Z")
There is some evidence that tigers have an infrasound growl below the range of human hearing that can cause paralysis, even in experienced trainers. [Check out](http://www.lightnet.co.uk/informer/scitech/20010118.htm) [these](http://www.physicscentral.com/news/news-01-1.html) [links](http://www.hindu.com/2001/01/11/stories/0811000e.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/7 "2002-10-07T08:14:05Z")
Try including the phrase “brown note” in your searches (seriously) - I was pretty sure that Cecil had covered this too, but I can’t find anything in the archive. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/8 "2002-10-07T09:19:41Z")
What you are perhaps refering to is something known as “Vibroacoustic Disease”. A regular search on Google yields a lot of sites about Puerto Rico, and problems related with military activity there. Most of it is political stuff, with very little info about the disease itself. A search on medline, however, produces a few interesting results. [Link…](http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/WebSearchFrameSet?OpenForm&dt=g&id=48DDE4A73E09A969852568880078C249&Query=%22vibroacoustic%20disease%22&ref=http://www.docguide.com/dgc.nsf/ge/Unregistered.User.545434?OpenDocument&u=goto//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=4&Term=%22vibroacoustic%20disease%22&dopt=r&dispmax=50) > [@](#): > > The Vibroacoustic Disease (VAD) is an occupational pathology induced by long-term (\>10 yr) exposure to large pressure amplitude (\> or = 90 dB SPL) and low frequency (\< or = 500 Hz) noise. > [@](#): > > We have classified VAD in function of the time it took for 50% of the population to acquire the relevant sign or symptom. Stage I, mild signs (behavioral and mood associated with repeated infections of the respiratory tract, e.g., bronchitis); Stage II, moderate signs (depression and aggressiveness, pericardial thickening and other extracellular matrix changes, light to moderate hearing impairment, and discrete neurovascular disorders); Stage III, severe signs (myocardial infarction, stroke, malignancy, epilepsy, and suicide). In university, I was told that exposure to low to sub-audio frequencies caused epileptic seisures in some people, but I had never heard anything about bowel control. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/9 "2002-10-07T13:33:30Z")
Here’s an old thread about it; [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=10755](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=10755) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/10 "2002-10-07T16:58:24Z")
I read somewhere that old theaters used to sometimes use low frequency sounds during horror films because it made people edgy and uncomfortable (to add to the “spooky” atmosphere of the movie I suppose). They never mentioned problems of overcrowded toilets or massive seat cleanups required so I’m thinking that bowel thing is a bit of an urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/11 "2002-10-07T17:40:11Z")
This remionds me of the old story about Nikola Tesla. he supposedly built a vibrating platform; standing on it was supposed to relieve fatigue, as well as minor aches and pains. Standing on it too long, OTOH, was said to cause diarrhea. Could this be the root of the “brown note” story? ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subsonic-sounds-effects-on-humans/131155/12 "2002-10-08T05:50:53Z")
Yeah, I thought it sounded like BS.