![]() A 200 Hz bass solo at 12 decibels is heard nearly as well as a 1000 Hz bicycle bell at just three decibels. Lower frequencies - think a deep bass guitar or rolling thunder - must be played at higher decibels, or higher volumes, for a human to hear, whereas higher frequencies can be heard at lower decibels. (Credit: Oarih/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons)Īccording to the contours, humans perceive the volume of sounds differently. ![]() Hearing Things Differentlyīut what about our responses to the high-pitched wail of nails on a chalkboard? A baby crying? Squealing brakes? Research points to equal-loudness contours, an important concept that informs musical acoustics and microphone design and explains the biological sensitivity of the human ear.įletcher-Munson equal loudness contours. Each sonic faux pas triggers a region in the front of the brain called the insula cortex, which, functioning in self-awareness and empathy, immediately fires up spindle neurons - cells that play a key role in socialization. Not only do we discern these bodily tones loud and clear, as they fall within the previously established kilohertz range, but their social connotations are cringe-worthy. Vomiting is a perfect example.”ĭry heaving, gagging, hurling. “ that get you to think, ‘Oh no, that was awful!’ An automatic feeling of disgust. “The sounds we make with our bodies that would be associated with social embarrassment,” Rogers says. These two hearing pathways overlap most impressively for sounds coming from within our own bodies. A recent study found that indoor noise (the sounds of our neighbors talking or roommates watching TV) complaints were reported more than twice as much during the pandemic as compared to before. This is explained by psychological stress theory, which hypothesizes a stronger fight or flight reaction to sounds we can neither control nor predict: loud chewing, for example, or a relentless car alarm.ĭuring quarantine, when many people felt trapped inside their homes, this theory became more relevant than perhaps ever before. It’s not a surprise, then, that a ringtone associated with waking from sleep becomes irksome. ![]() The second hearing pathway is learned, rather than built into our biology as we mature, social context shapes our emotional responses to certain sounds. “In your youth, to disambiguate small differences between sounds, you become an auditory athlete.” “'There are bats in that cave,' is very different from, 'There are hats in that cave,'” Rogers says. ![]()
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