Speak to my right ear, sing to my left

Poststructural Pub
1

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1197972.htm

Speak to my right ear, sing to my left
Agençe France-Presse Monday, 13 September 2004

Which ear do you use? Our left and right ears process sound differently, according to new research.

When scientists studied babies’ hearing they found the left ear was more attuned to music and the right better at picking up speech-like sounds.

Lead researcher Dr Yvonne Sininger of the University of California at Los Angeles and team published their study in the latest issue of the journal Science.

It has long been known that the right and left halves of the brain process sound differently, but those differences were thought to stem from cellular properties unique to each brain hemisphere.

The new research suggested the differences start at the ear.

“We always assumed that our left and right ears worked exactly the same way,” said Sininger.

“As a result, we tended to think it didn’t matter which ear was impaired in a person. Now we see that it may have profound implications for the individual’s speech and language development.”

The researchers said the discovery will help doctors enhance speech and language development in hearing-impaired newborns and the rehabilitation of people with hearing loss.

Sininger and her colleagues studied hearing in more than 3000 newborns, specifically tiny amplifiers located in the outer hair cells of the inner ear.

These cells contract and expand to amplify sound vibrations, convert the vibrations to neural cells and send them to the brain.

The scientists inserted tiny probes into the babies’ ears that emitted two different types of sounds and measured the amplified vibrations.

They found that speech-like clicks triggered greater amplification in the right ear, while music-like sustained tones were more greatly amplified by the left ear.

“We were intrigued to discover that the clicks triggered more amplification in the baby’s right ear, while the tones induced more amplification in the baby’s left ear,” Sininger said.

"This parallels how the brain processes speech and music, except the sides are reversed due to the brain’s cross connections.

“Our findings demonstrate that auditory processing starts in the ear before it is ever seen in the brain,” said co-author Associate Professor Barbara Cone-Wesson of the University of Arizona. “Even at birth, the ear is structured to distinguish between different types of sound and to send it to the right place in the brain.”

2

Interesting and informative.Thanks Bill.

3

Really interesting Bill. I now know why that when in a session I turn my left ear out to hear the others, I even do that at the reference desk, turnig my right ear to the customer to hear their question better.

Yes, very interesting.

MarkB

4

By gosh, so do I. Never noticed though.

5

true, very interesting, but, why then do most of us incline the (low)whistle to the right?


hmmm…might be cuz right hand is usually on top… :confused:

6

D’you dress to the left, sir? :smiley:





and your right hand is on top? Surely not, or are you cack-handed?

7

I noticed this hearing issue in myself many years ago; I figured it was either an anomaly or else a normal brain thing and probably true of everybody, so I didn’t think much about it other than noting which ear I used for what depending on the situation. I wonder if the phenomenon aids in auditory triangulation, much like binocular vision does for depth perception. Sidenote: owls’ ears are offset, one higher than the other, which contributes to triangulation in the hunt.

By the way, my left eye sees the world more redly, and the right more bluely. It’s subtle, but it’s there. How did I come to find this? Easy. I don’t have a life. My amusements are hard-won.

8

well, I know when I’m trying to “hear” music in areas where there’s lots of other extranious noise, I’ll “plug” my right ear and listen more with my left…
my gosh - this is actually “normal”!!! There’s very few things I do that I would consider “normal”!!! :smiley:

Missy

9

This would appear to be another good reason for right-handed players of guitars, banjos, mandolins, and bouzoukis not to look at their fingers when playing, since that tends to turn the left ear away from the instrument.

I’m surprised that the researchers were surprised, though. Given the differences in sound processing by by the two brain hemispheres, there is no particular pressure for the two ears to develop in exactly the same way–quite the contrary.

10

So if I plug my right ear when I’m playing I won’t hear my wife nagging me to take out the trash? hmmmm!

11

Hmm… I’ve never noticed this. But then, I tend to use my left ear to listen to everything, since I have more hearing loss in my right ear. :sniffle:

12

bullshit, what the hell was i talking about…right hand of course is always on the bottom…jeezzzz…confused soul i am… :roll:

13

I also listen with my left ear in a session. I noticed that before, but attributed it to either (a) slightly better hearing, or (b) left-handedness.

This is a fascinating result, that such specialized processing happens outside the brain. There’s so many applications of this discovery, too.

Caj