Questions tagged [hearing]
Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear.
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Why does yawning make me hear sounds at a slightly lower pitch?
Recently, I was listening to a song when I yawned during the music, and I noticed that this caused the music to sound slightly flatter (at a lower pitch) than normal. But once I finished yawning, the ...
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Do you have sharpened senses when you're hungry?
I'm curious if longer periods of hunger lead to a heightened acuity of your senses, especially hearing, which I suspect noticing in myself.
Googling for it mainly revealed "listen to your gut&...
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Is there any evidence that mammalian ears can act as thermal receptors?
Some snakes have a "pit organ" capable of sensing infrared radiation. The structure is similar to a primitive pit eye. Snakes are cold-blooded and their prey is generally warm-blooded, so it ...
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Do hair cells in the ear also vibrate at frequencies outside our hearing spectrum?
(The question has its origin because I asked myself in how far frequencies outside our perception can harm our hearing.)
First of all, the energy of a mechanical wave (in this case, the sound wave, ...
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Is there a detailed model of the resonance of the basilar membrane and excitation patterns of hair cells?
I've read that it's generally understood that deeper parts of the cochlea are sensitized to lower frequencies, and regions closer to the oval window are sensitive to high frequencies. In a sense, a ...
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Why is loud music much louder after pausing and resuming it?
If I pause a sufficiently loud song (in headphones) for several seconds, then resume it, I perceive it as deafeningly loud, even painfully. Yet, if I first lower the volume, resume, and then gradually ...
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Can you alter your hearing range by changing air pressure in your nose?
I caught a bad cold recently and found that increasing air pressure in my nose causes some clicks in my ear. I understood from this site that this is because ears and nose are connected. But what I ...
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Where in the cochlea are frequencies below 200 Hz detected?
I understand that different frequencies are detected in different positions along the cochlea.
I'm also aware that the range of human hearing is roughly between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
However, looking at ...
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If tinnitus is, in many cases, caused by damaged ear hair cells, couldn't it be solved by a mini cochlear implant that sends a constant signal?
If my understanding is correct, tinnitus is in most cases caused by damage to the inner ear hair cells, especially on the basal parts of the cochlea, which correspond to high frequencies. So, for ...
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What determines the maximum frequency limit that humans can hear?
I learned that the human ear doesn't hear sounds outside the range of 20-20,000 Hz.
I can understand that sounds below this range are so weak that they don't affect the ear.
But why do sounds above ...
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Can mosquitoes be attracted by our voice?
In the dark, mosquitoes use CO2 to find blood host like us. However, 1) they are known to have excellent auditory organs (ref1, ref2) and 2) sound can be heard from any directions, contrary to odors ...
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Do schooling fish make sounds that predators could detect?
Do schooling fish make sounds, voluntarily or involuntarily? A general internet search for "schooling fish sounds" doesn't provide many answers, but I found a paper from 1960 describing ...
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Where could I find biology-specialized transcription services for my conference? [closed]
I'm a conference organizer for various conferences in the field of biology. Just recently, I stumbled upon this Nature article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03487-2 and I have ...
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How can I accurately determine how much someone likes a sound?
I was thinking about this question the other day. My first instinct was to evaluate the dopamine levels before and after listening to a tune. I proposed this to my friend in the medical field, and she ...
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What role does the eardrum and ossicles play in hearing, versus cilia?
Modern electronic sound recording equipment employs a physical membrane that triggers the piezoelectric effect in a metallic element, to transform sound waves into electric signals.
I had always ...
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