New research throws doubt on old ideas of how hearing works
Contrary to what was previously assumed, humans interpret music and speech differently. Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden and Oregon Health and Science University in the United States came at this result in their study. The findings, which have been published in Science Advances, could improve cochlear implant design. We are sociable beings. We value hearing other people's voices, and we use our hearing to recognize and identify human speech and voices. The ear drum transmits sound from the outer ear to the spiral-shaped cochlea, which is the inner ear. The cochlea is home to the outer and inner hair cells, which are the hearing sense cells. The inner hair cells' "hairs" flex as a result of the sound waves, sending a signal to the brain, which interprets the sound we hear, via the nerves. We have assumed that each sensory cell has its own "optimal frequency" for the past 100 years (a measure of the number of sound waves per second). This freque...