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Ear's spiral responds to bass

New theory explains why our hearing machinery is coiled up.

Why is our cochlea, the key organ of hearing, curled into a spiral? It has been often thought to be a space-saving measure. But researchers in the United States have shown that the spiral could be vital for increasing our ear's sensitivity to sound, particularly at low frequencies.

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Posted by Nicola Jones on March 13, 2006
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Thank you, Nature.com, for the article "Ear's Spiral Responds to Bass."

At 73 years of age, I am living in Brazil where they have unfortunately adopted the latest loud, unmusical noise the U.S. has spawned around the globe. Although local law in Salvador prohibits sound above 60 DB between 10PM and 7AM, allowing 70 DB the rest of the time, there is a night club some 200 yards from my apartment building whose loudspeakers, even though on the other side of a double row of 3-story buildings, put out so much bass that I have to wear ear plugs to sleep. This may go on till 4 or even 6AM!

My first question is: Is there a simple device I could take in my car and measure the decibels of sound between my building and theirs? If I can document this I think I can get the local authorities to cite them and put a stop to it.

My second question is: Am I correct in my feeling that the lower tones carry farther? I seldom notice anything that sounds like musical tones, whether of guitar, trumpet, or voice, only the boom-boom of drums and low bass strings which come in my window as if a carpenter were pounding nails just outside. I feel like the higher tones are fading out to sea while the lower bass tones reverbrate and carry for longer distances.

Any helpful advice will be greatly appreciated,

. . . . . . . . . Tom Smith

Posted by: Thomas E. (Tom) Smith | March 13, 2006 04:38 PM

Hi,
could it be that the sound waves reaching the end of the cochlea, namely the lower frequencies, have lost intensity traveling up the spiral, and therefore the hair cell nerves would profit from such an amplification that was found now.
what I mean in other words: there must be a loss of "sound quality" in some way, having a coiled up cochlea instead of a straight one - which would be evolutionary unfavorable, even if some space could be saved. but if the coiled structure made up for this loss (if indeed there is one), the space saving would come in favorable...
well, just some amateur thoughts...thanks for considering it.
fred

Posted by: Fred Marbach | March 14, 2006 07:03 PM

Could thia be futher evidence of design

Posted by: David McGrath | March 15, 2006 02:56 PM

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