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Cat hearing is also extremely sensitive and is among the best of any mammal, [17] being most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz. [21] This sensitivity is further enhanced by the cat's large movable outer ears (their pinnae), which both amplify sounds and help a cat sense the direction from which a noise is coming. [19]
Hyperacusis is an increased sensitivity to sound and a low tolerance for environmental noise. Definitions of hyperacusis can vary significantly; it often revolves around damage to or dysfunction of the stapes bone, stapedius muscle or tensor tympani ().
The first research on the topic of how the ear hears different frequencies at different levels was conducted by Fletcher and Munson in 1933. Until recently, it was common to see the term Fletcher–Munson used to refer to equal-loudness contours generally, even though a re-determination was carried out by Robinson and Dadson in 1956, which became the basis for an ISO 226 standard.
Auditory sensitivity changes when the duration of a sound becomes less than 1 second. The threshold intensity decreases by about 10 dB when the duration of a tone burst is increased from 20 to 200 ms. For example, suppose that the quietest sound a subject can hear is 16 dB SPL if the sound is presented at a duration of 200 ms.
A graph of the A-, B-, C- and D-weightings across the frequency range 10 Hz – 20 kHz Video illustrating A-weighting by analyzing a sine sweep (contains audio). A-weighting is a form of frequency weighting and the most commonly used of a family of curves defined in the International standard IEC 61672:2003 and various national standards relating to the measurement of sound pressure level. [1]
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a hearing impairment resulting from exposure to loud sound.People may have a loss of perception of a narrow range of frequencies or impaired perception of sound including sensitivity to sound or ringing in the ears. [1]
The sensitivity of the human ear changes as a function of frequency, as shown in the equal-loudness graph. Each line on this graph shows the SPL required for frequencies to be perceived as equally loud, and different curves pertain to different sound pressure levels.
Equal-loudness contours. The phon is a logarithmic unit of loudness level for tones and complex sounds. Loudness is measured in sones, a linear unit.Human sensitivity to sound is variable across different frequencies; therefore, although two different tones may present an identical sound pressure to a human ear, they may be psychoacoustically perceived as differing in loudness.