How the Ear Tunes Out Sounds Before They Reach Your Brain

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in science on (#2SJW)
In a crowded room, how do you focus on your companion's voice while ignoring the conversations going on around you? A digital model of the cochlea, the shell-shaped organ that serves as an interface between sound waves and the nervous system, suggests the ear begins filtering out background sounds before they even reach the brain.

Studying how the brain hones in on a single voice, a phenomenon known as the "cocktail party effect," can help unlock how the brain perceives sound. But it's not just about the brain. For several decades, researchers have suspected that other parts of the auditory system also play a big role.

http://www.insidescience.org/content/physics-tuning-out/1586
Reply 5 comments

testing via physics (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-09-19 11:03 (#2SKG)

This is cool science, and useful. I wouldn't be surprised if better research in this area didn't unlock hearing for people born without it, for example. Cool quote from the article:
For the brain to interpret sounds, it needs nerves to bring it signals from the ear. But it is not just a one-way street. The auditory system also includes so-called efferent nerves, which carry signals from the brain back to the ear. This creates a feedback loop within the auditory system, which may play a role in selective attention.

"It's very hard, physiologically, to test that idea though," pointed out Jonathan Ashmore, a professor of biophysics at the University College London's Ear Institute. "And even harder to think about the mechanisms that might implement the idea."

Rather than attempting to solve this problem by looking at the biological auditory system, researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland tackled the issue from another angle: physics. They tested the cocktail party effect on a digital model of the cochlea.

Tinnitus (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-19 13:37 (#2SKS)

Could this perhaps go some way into solving the problem of tinnitus which now affects more than 20% of the world?

Yes, but (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-19 13:37 (#2SKT)

.. can it filter out my wife's nagging before it reaches my brain..

Re: Yes, but (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-19 14:43 (#2SM1)

Exactly -- I think this hard-won physical adaptability is EXACTLY what allows marriages to survive as long as they do. I'm kinda serious. Without the ability to filter out nagging, or traffic noise, or AC, or ballpark/concert audiences, we'd have all killed each other long ago.

you hear a high pitched whining (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-19 13:41 (#2SKV)

probably klahn