Kuala Lumpur, March 22- Scientists have known the human ear is remarkably adept at tuning in to a single voice, but have been unable to work out exactly why.
According to a report in Daily Mail, researchers have now uncovered the mechanism our ears use to tune in and out of conversations – and which lets us talk easily in a crowded and loud room.
Researchers at MIT have found the key to the trick is a tiny membrane inside the inner ear, called the tectorial membrane, which lets us ‘tune’ our hearing constantly.
The new findings are reported in the Biophysical Journal by a team led by MIT graduate student Jonathan Sellon, and including research scientist Roozbeh Ghaffari, former graduate student Shirin Farrahi and professor of electrical engineering Dennis Freeman.
The viscosity of tectorial membrane depends on the size and distribution of tiny pores, just a few tens of nanometers wide.
This provides mechanical filtering that helps to sort out specific sounds.
The team hopes their discovery could lead to improved hearing aids and even microphones for gadgets such as phones.
The Daily Mail report also quoted William Brownell, a professor of otolaryngology at Baylor College of Medicine, as saying that this was the first study to suggest that porosity may affect cochlear tuning.
He said the work “could provide insight” into the development of specific hearing problems.
-Indiatoday
