Subject: Re: The ear dynamically adapting frequency response From: Monita Chatterjee <mchatterjee@xxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 13:26:46 -0500 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>And cochlear implant listeners show loudness adaptation, sometimes very significant reductions, within a few seconds. Jay Rubinstein has found this to be useful in his use of high-rate "conditioning" pulse train stimuli.. With reference to the original question, we can't evoke hair cells to explain the adaptation in cochlear implant listeners..but it could be a different mechanism for them, who knows.. -- Monita Chatterjee >>> "Strickland, Elizabeth A" <estrick@xxxxxxxx> 02/05/09 1:11 PM >>> If Neal Viemeister or Sid Bacon are monitoring this list, they can tell you that they have seen this rapid adaptation at high frequencies in psychophysical experiments, in normal-hearing people. Beth Strickland From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx On Behalf Of José Ignacio Alcántara Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 12:25 PM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: The ear dynamically adapting frequency response Not wishing to be pedantic, but I doubt very much whether any mobile phone transducer would have a useable frequency range extending to 16 kHz. But then again, 8 kHz would work just as well for presbyacustic adults... And as far as I recall, significant adaption in hearing is relatively rare, so much so that it used to be one of the diagnostic signs of retrocochlear (e.g. acoustic neuroma) pathology. Jose On 5 Feb 2009, at 17:16, Eric Jacobs wrote: This is completely anecdotal... As you know, kids like to put high frequency (16 kHz) ring tones on their cell phones so that adults (ie. authority figures) with compromised hearing cannot hear the phone ring. Yesterday, my son asked "why is it that I can hear the first ring loudly, but by the third or fourth ring I cannot hear it anymore?" I didn't have an answer, of course. But if you'd like me to investigate the phenomenon further with him, I can do that. This isn't horribly scientific, of course, but maybe useful. Eric -----Original Message----- From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Behalf Of Mark Fletcher Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 3:48 AM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: The ear dynamically adapting frequency response Dear List I am investigating the possibility that the ear dynamically adapts its frequency response dependant on environment, for example, to suppress noise. My current thinking is that the mechanism for this adaptation is in the expanding and contracting of the outer hair cells, restricting or exaggerating movement of the inner hair cells at different frequencies depending on the stimuli. I would be grateful for any input anyone may have regarding this idea. Thanks, Mark ________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail just got better. Find out more! <http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/windowslive/products/hotmail.aspx> _______________________________________ José Ignacio Alcántara, M.A., Ph.D. University Lecturer Department of Experimental Psychology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EB Fellow and Tutor, Director of Studies in Natural Sciences (Biological) Fitzwilliam College Storey's Way Cambridge CB3 0DG Phone: 44 (0)1223 764412 (Department) 44 (0)1223 477170 (College) Fax: 44 (0)1223 333564 Web: http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/lara http://hearing.psychol.cam.ac.uk ________________________________________ P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail