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Hearing (sense)
 
 
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Hearing (or audition) is one of the traditional five sense
Sense

Senses are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception....
s. It is the ability to perceive sound
Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....
 by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear
Ear

The ear is the sense organ that detects sounds. The vertebrate ear shows a common biology from fish to humans, with variations in structure according to order and species....
. The inability to hear is called deafness.

In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system
Auditory system

The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing ....
: vibration
Vibration

Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic function such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road....
s are detected by the ear
Ear

The ear is the sense organ that detects sounds. The vertebrate ear shows a common biology from fish to humans, with variations in structure according to order and species....
 and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
 (primarily in the temporal lobe
Temporal lobe

The temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both the left and right hemispheres of the brain....
). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism.






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Hearing (or audition) is one of the traditional five sense
Sense

Senses are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception....
s. It is the ability to perceive sound
Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....
 by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear
Ear

The ear is the sense organ that detects sounds. The vertebrate ear shows a common biology from fish to humans, with variations in structure according to order and species....
. The inability to hear is called deafness.

In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system
Auditory system

The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing ....
: vibration
Vibration

Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic function such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road....
s are detected by the ear
Ear

The ear is the sense organ that detects sounds. The vertebrate ear shows a common biology from fish to humans, with variations in structure according to order and species....
 and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
 (primarily in the temporal lobe
Temporal lobe

The temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both the left and right hemispheres of the brain....
). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of mechanosensation.

Hearing tests

Hearing can be measured by behavioral tests using an audiometer
Audiometer

An audiometer is a machine used for evaluating hearing loss. The invention of this machine is generally credited to Dr. Harvey Fletcher of Brigham Young University....
. Electrophysiological tests of hearing can provide accurate measurements of hearing thresholds even in unconscious subjects. Such tests include auditory brainstem evoked potentials
Auditory Brainstem Response

Auditory brainstem response is an electrical signal evoked from the brainstem of a human or other mammal by the presentation of a sound such as a click....
 (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and electrocochleography (EchoG). Technical advances in these tests have allowed hearing screening for infants to become widespread.

Hearing underwater


Hearing threshold and the ability to localize sound sources are reduced underwater, in which the speed of sound is faster than in air. Underwater hearing is by bone conduction
Bone conduction

Bone conduction is the sound conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull.Bone conduction is the reason why a person's voice sounds different to him/her when it is recorded and played back....
, and localization of sound appears to depend on differences in amplitude detected by bone conduction.

Hearing in animals

Not all sounds are normally audible to all animals. Each species has a range of normal hearing for both loudness (amplitude) and pitch (frequency
Frequency

Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
). Many animals use sound to communicate with each other, and hearing in these species is particularly important for survival and reproduction. In species that use sound as a primary means of communication, hearing is typically most acute for the range of pitches produced in calls and speech.

Frequencies capable of being heard by humans are called audio
Audio frequency

An audio frequency , or audible frequency is characterized as a periodic vibration whose frequency is audible to the average human. While the range of frequencies that any individual can hear is largely related to environmental factors, the generally accepted standard range of audible frequencies is 20 to 20,000 hertz....
 or sonic
Sonic

Sonic may refer to:*Sonic, , of or relating to audible sounds.*-sonic-, a Prefix /infix/suffix for words with meanings that relate to acoustics....
. The range is typically considered to be between 20Hz and 20,000Hz. Frequencies higher than audio are referred to as ultrasonic
Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing . Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 Hertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound....
, while frequencies below audio are referred to as infrasonic
Infrasound

Infrasound is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 cycles per second, the normal limit of human hearing. Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perceive infrasound, the sound pressure must be sufficiently high....
. Some bat
Microbat

The microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera . They are most often referred to by their scientific name....
s use ultrasound for echolocation
Animal echolocation

Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several animals such as dolphins, shrews, most bats, and most whales....
 while in flight. Dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s are able to hear ultrasound, which is the principle of 'silent' dog whistle
Dog whistle

A dog whistle is a type of whistle used in the training of dogs and cats. It was invented by Francis Galton. This is discussed quite briefly in his book Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development ....
s. Snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s sense infrasound through their bellies, and whale
Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
s, giraffe
Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. It is covered in large, irregular patches of yellow to black fur separated by white, off-white, or dark yellowish brown background....
s and elephant
Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
s use it for communication.

See also


  • Active listening
    Active listening

    Active listening is an intent to "Hearing for meaning"....
  • Audiogram
    Audiogram

    An audiogram is a standard way of representing a person's hearing loss. Most audiograms cover the limited range 100Hz to 8000Hz which is most important for clear understanding of speech, and they plot the threshold of hearing relative to a standardised curve that represents 'normal' hearing, in dBHL....
  • Audiometry
    Audiometry

    Audiometry is the testing of hearing ability. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subject's equal-loudness contour with the help of an audiometer, but may also measure ability to discriminate between different sound intensities, recognize Pitch , or distinguish Interpersonal communication from background noise....
  • Auditory illusion
    Auditory illusion

    An auditory illusion is an illusion of hearing , the aural equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or "impossible" sounds....
  • Auditory brainstem response
    Auditory Brainstem Response

    Auditory brainstem response is an electrical signal evoked from the brainstem of a human or other mammal by the presentation of a sound such as a click....
     (ABR) test
  • Auditory scene analysis
    Auditory scene analysis

    In psychophysics, auditory scene analysis is the process by which the human auditory system organizes sound into perceptually meaningful elements....
  • Auditory system
    Auditory system

    The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing ....
  • Cochlear implant
    Cochlear implant

    A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is Hearing impairment#Quantification of hearing loss....
  • Equal-loudness contour
    Equal-loudness contour

    An equal-loudness contour is a measure of sound pressure , over the frequency spectrum, for which a listener perceives a constant loudness when presented with pure steady tones....
  • Hearing impairment
    Hearing impairment

    A hearing impairment is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds.Caused by a wide range of biological and environmental factors, loss of hearing can happen to any organism that perceives sound....
  • Hearing range
    Hearing range

    For more detail on human hearing see Audiogram, Equal loudness contours and Hearing impairment.Hearing range usually describes the range of frequencies that can be heard by an animal or human, though it can also refer to the range of levels....
  • Missing fundamental
    Missing fundamental

    A sound is said to have a missing fundamental, suppressed fundamental, or phantom fundamental when its overtones suggest a fundamental frequency but the sound lacks a component at the fundamental frequency itself....
  • Music
    Music

    Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
  • Music and the brain
    Music and the brain

    Sounds and noises are only separated by the experience of the listener. In the domain of the mind subjectivity reigns, and yet attempts are still made to chip away at individual variations to quantify the actions of the brain....
  • National Day of Listening
    National Day of Listening

    National Day of Listening is a day set aside to encourage the collecting of oral interviews for personal and family history preservation. The event was first promoted in 2008, when it was set to coincide with the day after Thanksgiving Day, when families are more likely to spend time together....
  • Presbycusis
    Presbycusis

    Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, is the cumulative effect of aging on Hearing . Also known as presbyacusis, it is defined as a progressive bilateral symmetrical age-related sensorineural hearing loss....
  • Tinnitus
    Tinnitus

    Tinnitus is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound.Tinnitus can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head....


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