Most people think of sound as something that stops at the ears. But new research out of Japan suggests it may go much deeper — straight to the building blocks of your body.
A study from Kyoto University, published in Communications Biology, has shown that certain sound waves can trigger real, measurable changes inside cells. The findings could shake up the way scientists think about how the body responds to the environment — and how sound might someday be used in medicine.
In their experiment, researchers focused on murine myoblasts, which are essentially muscle-forming cells from mice. They exposed the cells to three types of sound: a steady tone at 440 Hz (the same pitch as a musical A), a much higher tone at 14 kHz, and a blast of white noise. Each sound was delivered using a vibration transducer that applied about 100 pascals of pressure — roughly the kind of pressure that naturally exists in the body’s tissues.
What happened next surprised them. After just two hours of sound exposure, the activity of 42 genes had shifted. That number jumped to 145 after 24 hours. The affected genes were tied to things like stress responses, cell movement, and even fat formation.
Rather than a uniform reaction, the genes behaved in different ways. Some switched on suddenly, then off again. Others ramped up gradually and stayed on — a pattern that looked more like how the body responds to hormones. The team labeled these two groups “spiked” and “triggered.”
One gene in particular, Ptgs2, stood out. It’s involved in inflammation and healing, and it switched on quickly in response to sound. That activation depended on a protein called FAK — focal adhesion kinase — which helps cells respond to mechanical changes in their environment.
One especially intriguing result: sound seemed to interfere with the process of fat cell development. The researchers noticed that pre-fat cells were less likely to mature into full fat cells after being exposed to sound, hinting at possible future applications in obesity or fat management — without drugs or surgery.
Altogether, the team identified around 190 genes that responded to sound, touching on key biological areas like cell adhesion, movement, programmed cell death, and even blood vessel growth — all of which play a part in how the body repairs and rebuilds tissue.
The idea that sound can travel through the body isn’t new. It’s not limited to your eardrums. Sound waves move through muscle, fat, and bone. One older study showed that loud sounds can reach an unborn child in the womb with only a small drop in volume — around 5 to 7 decibels — delivering about 2 pascals of pressure. During intense physical activity, tissue pressures can soar to over 400,000 pascals, which may have effects on muscle and bone development that scientists still don’t fully understand.
“Since sound is non-material, acoustic stimulation is a tool that is non-invasive, safe, and immediate, and will likely benefit medicine and healthcare,” said corresponding author Masahiro Kumeta, per The Brighter Side of News.
This research raises big questions about how our bodies may be tuned in to the sonic environment around us — not just through the ears, but possibly at a cellular level. If sound can guide gene expression, even slightly, it opens the door to all sorts of possibilities, from speeding up healing to managing body fat to influencing how cells grow.