login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
Hearing Based on Shape?
The team established the surprisingly important role of the shape of the cochlea, the snail-shell-shaped organ in the inner ear that converts sound waves into nerve impulses that the brain deciphers.
The scientists said that the relationship will be useful in conservation to estimate the impact that the noises of human activities are having on animals like Siberian tigers, polar bears and marine mammals that won't sit still for hearing tests.
It also can provide new information about the hearing of extinct mammals, like mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, and, in so doing, may contribute new insights into how the sense of hearing evolved.
"It turns out that it is the curvature of the cochlea, not its size, that is highly correlated to the low-frequency hearing limit," said Daphne Manoussaki, assistant professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University, who headed the new study with Richard S. Chadwick, a section chief at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (one of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH).
Spiral-shaped cochleae are exclusive to mammals. Birds and reptiles generally have plate-like or slightly curved versions of this critical organ, limiting the span of octaves that they can hear. Animals with tightly coiled cochleae tend to have greater hearing ranges, but previous attempts to associate these auditory effects with the physical characteristics of the cochlea have proven unsatisfactory because they did not take a critical acoustic effect into account.
|
|
|
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
- News Quick Links
 | News Central | | Health Watch | |
| Latest Health News | | Health In Focus | |
| News Category (500+) | | Breaking Health News | |
| Popular News | | Celebrating Life | |
| Health News and Press Release | | Medindia - Exclusive | |
| News Photo Gallery | | India Special | |
| News Video Gallery | | Lifestyle and Wellness | |
| News From Other Resources | |||
| News Categories: |
| » | Moral Sense Depends on Type of Activity Being Done at Particular Time |
| » | 'No Scanty Garbs' Campaign UAE Women |
| » | Asian Casinos Combat Crooks |
| » | Dapper Eyewear Records All Within Sight |
| » | Rock Music at Concerts may Lead to Hearing Problems |
| More Life Style News | |
|
Research Related News |
||||||||
| » | Personality Traits Linked To Longevity in Centenarians | » | Lack of Vitamin D in Diet Raises Stroke Risk in Japanese-Americans | |||||
| » | Why Bovine TB Continues to Spread Demystified in New Research | » | Seaweed Pill May Help Treat Arthritis | |||||
| » | P. Aeruginosa Infection Leads to Worse Outcomes and Increased Hospitalizations in COPD Patients | » | Hormone Boosts Production of Molecules Which Fight Skin Infection | |||||
| » | Protein Discovery Could Lead To New Vaccine for Meningitis | » | Qui Vive: Intense Nuclear Radiation Threat, Scientists | |||||
| Read More >> | ||||||||
