Hearing is the ability to perceive
soundSound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
by detecting
vibrationVibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...
s through an organ such as the
earThe ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
. It is one of the traditional five
senseSenses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for 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. The inability to hear is called deafness.
Hearing is the ability to perceive
soundSound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
by detecting
vibrationVibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...
s through an organ such as the
earThe ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
. It is one of the traditional five
senseSenses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for 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. The inability to hear is called deafness.
In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the
auditory systemThe auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing.- Outer ear :The folds of cartilage surrounding the ear canal are called the pinna...
: vibrations are detected by the
earThe ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the
brainThe brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
(primarily in the
temporal lobeThe temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian 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 mechanism
The
eardrumThe eardrum, or tympanic membrane, is a thin membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear in humans and other tetrapods. Its function is to transmit sound from the air to the ossicles inside the middle ear. The malleus bone bridges the gap between the eardrum and the other ossicles...
of an ear simplifies incoming air pressure waves to a single channel of
amplitudeAmplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...
. In the
inner earThe inner ear is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the temporal bone of the skull with a system of passages comprising two main functional parts:...
, the distribution of vibrations along the length of the
basilar membraneThe basilar membrane within the cochlea of the inner ear is a stiff structural element that separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani .-Function:...
is detected by
hair cellHair cells are the sensory receptors of both the auditory system and the vestibular system in all vertebrates. In mammals, the auditory hair cells are located within the organ of Corti on a thin basilar membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear...
s. The location and intensity of vibrations in the basilar membrane is transmitted to the brain through the auditory nerve.
Hearing tests
Hearing can be measured by behavioral tests using an
audiometerAn audiometer is a machine used for evaluating hearing loss. Audiometers are standard equipment at ENT clinics and in audiology centers. They usually consist of an embedded hardware unit connected to a pair of headphones and a test subject feedback button, sometimes controlled by a standard PC...
. Electrophysiological tests of hearing can provide accurate measurements of hearing thresholds even in unconscious subjects. Such tests include
auditory brainstem evoked potentialsThe auditory brainstem response is an auditory evoked potential extracted from ongoing electrical activity in the brain and recorded via electrodes placed on the scalp. The resulting recording is a series of vertex positive waves of which I through V are evaluated...
(ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and electrocochleography (EchoG). Technical advances in these tests have allowed hearing screening for infants to become widespread.
Defense mechanism
The hearing structures of many species have defense mechanisms against injury. For example, the muscles of the middle ear (e.g. the tensor tympani muscle) in many mammals contract reflexively in reaction to loud sounds which may injure the hearing ability of the organism.
The idea that the acoustic reflex is a defense mechanism has been a topic for debate in recent years. Commonly cited counterarguments include:
- The types of sound that produce hearing loss (impact and continuous noise), were not present during the evolutionary history of mammals.
- The muscles that kink the ossicles are among the smallest in the body, and fatigue too quickly to be useful in the capacity of protecting against continuous noise.
- The reflex is too slow to protect against impact noises.
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 conductionBone conduction is the 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. Because the skull conducts lower frequencies better than air, people perceive their own...
, 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 (
frequencyFrequency 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
audioAn audio frequency or audible frequency is characterized as a periodic vibration whose frequency is audible to the average human...
or sonic. The range is typically considered to be between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. Frequencies higher than audio are referred to as
ultrasonicUltrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is thus not separated from "normal" sound based on differences in physical properties, only the fact that humans cannot hear it. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is...
, while frequencies below audio are referred to as
infrasonicInfrasound is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz or 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
batsThe microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera . They are most often referred to by their scientific name...
use ultrasound for
echolocationEcholocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals.Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects...
while in flight.
DogThe domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s are able to hear ultrasound, which is the principle of 'silent'
dog whistleA 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.
SnakeSnakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s sense infrasound through their bellies, and
whaleWhale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s,
giraffeThe giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
s,
dolphinDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s and
elephantElephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s use it for communication.
Certain animals have more sensitive hearing than humans which enables them to hear sounds too faint to be detected by humans.
Mathematics
The eardrum of an ear simplifies incoming air pressure waves to a single channel of
amplitudeAmplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...
. The basilar membrane of the inner ear separates out different frequencies: high frequencies produce a large vibration at the end near the middle ear, and low frequencies a large vibration at the distant end. Thus the ear performs a frequency analysis, roughly similar to a
Fourier transformIn mathematics, Fourier analysis is a subject area which grew from the study of Fourier series. The subject began with the study of the way general functions may be represented by sums of simpler trigonometric functions...
. However, the nerve pulses delivered to the brain contain both place and rate information, so the similarity is not strong.
See also
- Audiogram
An audiogram is a standard way of representing a person's hearing loss . Most audiograms cover the limited range 100 Hz to 8000 Hz which is most important for clear understanding of speech, and they plot the threshold of hearing relative to a standardised curve that represents 'normal'...
- Audiometry
Audiometry is the testing of hearing ability, involving thresholds and differing frequencies. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subject's hearing levels with the help of an audiometer, but may also measure ability to discriminate between different sound intensities, recognize pitch, or...
- 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
The auditory brainstem response is an auditory evoked potential extracted from ongoing electrical activity in the brain and recorded via electrodes placed on the scalp. The resulting recording is a series of vertex positive waves of which I through V are evaluated...
(ABR) test
- Auditory scene analysis
In psychophysics, auditory scene analysis is the process by which the human auditory system organizes sound into perceptually meaningful elements. The term was coined by psychologist Albert Bregman...
- Auditory system
The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing.- Outer ear :The folds of cartilage surrounding the ear canal are called the pinna...
- Hearing impairment
-Definition:Deafness is the inability for the ear to interpret certain or all frequencies of sound.-Environmental Situations:Deafness can be caused by environmental situations such as noise, trauma, or other ear defections...
- 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...
- Bone conduction
Bone conduction is the 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. Because the skull conducts lower frequencies better than air, people perceive their own...
- Listening problems
- Neuronal encoding of sound
The neuronal encoding of sound is the representation of auditory sensation and perception in the nervous system.This article explores the basic physiological principles of sound perception, and traces hearing mechanisms from sound as pressure waves in air to the transduction of these waves into...
- 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. The hearing loss is most marked at higher frequencies...
- Tinnitus
Tinnitus |ringing]]") is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound.Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom that can result from a wide range of underlying causes: abnormally loud sounds in the ear canal for even the briefest period , ear...
Further reading
- Enrique A. Lopez-Poveda, Alan R. Palmer & Ray Meddis (Eds.) (2010). The Neurophysiological Bases of Auditory Perception (pp. 99–110). New York: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4419-5685-9
External links