Bone conduction pathways confer directional cues to salamanders

Sound and vibration are generated by mechanical disturbances within the environment, and the ability to detect and localize these acoustic cues is generally important for survival, as suggested by the early emergence of inherently directional otolithic ears in vertebrate evolutionary history. However, fossil evidence indicates that the water-adapted ear of early terrestrial tetrapods lacked specialized peripheral structures to transduce sound pressure (e.g., tympana). Early terrestrial hearing therefore should have required nontympanic (or extratympanic) mechanisms for sound detection and localization. Here we used atympanate salamanders to investigate the efficacy of extratympanic pathways to support directional hearing in air. We assessed peripheral encoding of directional acoustic information using directionally-masked auditory brainstem response recordings. We used laser Doppler vibrometry to measure the velocity of sound pressure-induced head vibrations as a key extratympanic mechanism for aerial sound reception in atympanate species. We found that sound generates head vibrations that vary with the angle of the incident sound. This extratympanic pathway for hearing supports a figure-eight pattern of directional auditory sensitivity to airborne sound in the absence of a pressure-transducing tympanic ear.

Tingkat Kebisingan dan Perambatan Suara Akibat Bunyi Luar Pada Gereja Masehi Injili Minahasa (GMIM) Kampus Unsrat dan GMIM Bethesda Manado

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kontribusi dinding dan arsitektur ruang serta jarak gedung ke jalan terhadap reduksi bising dari luar kedalam bangunan, dan distribusi bunyi yang terjadi. Studi kasus pada 2 gereja yaitu gereja GMIM Kampus Unsrat dan gereja GMIM Bethesda Ranotana di Kota Manado. Sebuah sumber bunyi di letakkan di luar ruang dekat pagar pada jarak 12 m terhadap gedung, dengan kuat bunyi konstan namun bervariasi antara 60 sampai dengan 100 dB dengan tahapan setiap 10 dB. Kuat bunyi dihitung dan diukur pada setiap jarak 2 m diruang luar dan dalam Gereja. Pengukuran menggunakan alat sound level meter. Perhitungan menggunakan teori akustik ruang dan software I_Simpa. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa konfigurasi arsitektur selubung dan ruang bangunan kedua gereja tersebut dalam keadaan kosong hanya mampu mereduksi bising sebesar 2.2 dan 3.7 dB, dengan jendela terbuka. Dengan sumber suara 100 dB di ruang luar, hasil pengukuran di ruang dalam pada kedua gereja mencapai 69.3 dB(A) dan 56.4 dB(A). Rentang bunyi tersebut masih tergolong bising dan belum memenuhi syarat kenyamanan bunyi untuk jenis bangunan ibadah menurut SNI. Visualisasi distribusi bunyi dengan menggunakan software I_Simpa, menunjukkan peran bukaan pintu dan jendela yang menyebabkan kebocoran bunyi kedalam ruangan.Kata kunci: Akustika; bising; dinding; gereja Noise Level and Sound Propagation Due to Outside Sound at GMIM Church Unsrat Campus and GMIM Bethesda Manado ABSTRACTThis research aims to determine the contribution of walls and architectural interior, and the distance of the building to the road to the reduction of noise from outside into the building as well as the distribution of sound that occurs. Case studies on 2 churches: the GMIM Church of Unsrat Campus and the GMIM Bethesda Ranotana Church, both in Manado City. A sound source was placed outside the room near the fence at 12 m from the building. The sound source was constant but varied from 60 to 100 dB with steps every 10 dB. Sound reception was calculated and measured every 2 m distance at outside and inside. Measurements were carried out using sound level meter. Calculations by acoustic theory and I_Simpa software. The results show that the churches when room is empty, had only able to reduce the noise by 2.2 and 3.7 dB, with opened windows. When a 100 dB sound source was applied, the measurement results in the indoor of the two buildings reached 69.3 dB(A) and 56.4 dB(A). Graphical visualizations of sound distribution by using I_Simpa software, showed the role of door and opened window that cause sound leakage into the room.Keywords: Acoustic; church; noise; wall

Bridging the Gap Between Mammal and Insect Ears – A Comparative and Evolutionary View of Sound-Reception

Insects must wonder why mammals have ears only in their head and why they evolved only one common principle of ear design—the cochlea. Ears independently evolved at least 19 times in different insect groups and therefore can be found in completely different body parts. The morphologies and functional characteristics of insect ears are as wildly diverse as the ecological niches they exploit. In both, insects and mammals, hearing organs are constrained by the same biophysical principles and their respective molecular processes for mechanotransduction are thought to share a common evolutionary origin. Due to this, comparative knowledge of hearing across animal phyla provides crucial insight into fundamental processes of auditory transduction, especially at the biomechanical and molecular level. This review will start by comparing hearing between insects and mammals in an evolutionary context. It will then discuss current findings about sound reception will help to bridge the gap between both research fields.

Dual sound reception apparatus in protocetid whales

Modern cetaceans dwell in an underwater world of sound. Due to the specific physico-acoustic conditions inherent in the aquatic environment, sound reception pathway in modern whales drastically differs from that of land mammals and implies deep modification of their external acoustic apparatus. To fathom the implementation of this underwater hearing system, the rare data on the auditory region of early whales are paramount. Among them, previous studies on protocetid auditory region highlighted the presence of two potential acoustic portals on the lateral wall of the bulla: a tympanic ring and a tympanic plate. Through an anatomical survey, I explore the external sound reception apparatus of a protocetid whale and discuss the functionality of these two sound portals. The study of the tympanic ring, allow me to propose a reconstruction of the tympanic membrane of this early whale, suggesting that this structure was functional for aerial hearing. 3D investigation of the bone thickness of the bulla reveals the presence of homologous areas of reduced thickness within the tympanic plate of protocetid and modern cetaceans, highlighting a common functioning of this structure for underwater hearing. Thus, this detailed anatomical survey of the lateral wall of a protocetid tympanic bulla confirms the functionality of the two contiguous acoustic portals and sheds new light on the sound transmission mechanism in these early whales.

Nowa Muzyka i przyjemność w serii utworów audiowizualnych ASMR Neo Hülckera

New Music developed in the twentieth century under the influence of Theodor W. Adorno’s philosophy. Its sense, according to the philosopher, lies in social criticism, which the composer accomplishes through radical artistic innovation, and the distance from the audience’s expectations. The sensual pleasure of sound reception is not included in the concept of New Music, which preferably should not appeal to anybody, as it “took on the shoulders darkness of the world and all its guilt, and sees its only happiness in knowing misery” (Adorno). In the ASMR series, the German composer Neo Hülcker breaks this paradigm of perception and proposes a radically different interpretationof New Music.ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a sensation of pleasant tingle, caused by subtle acoustic-haptic phenomena, such as amplified murmurs, whispers, touching objects and materials. Millions of people around the world are watching ASMR videos on YouTube that let them relax nicely.In such video compositions as ASMR Tutorial: How to Play “Pression” by Helmut Lachenmann, ASMR Tutorial: How to Play Mark Andreor ASMR Unwrapping the Piano & iv 11a, and Peter Ablinger: weiss/ weisslich 3 – [super soft ASMR] Neo Hülcker investigates the similarityof sound material of illustrative pieces of New Music and ASMR, raising the question of whether New Music can make someone feeltingly. Presenting in the context of ASMR works by Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Andre and Peter Ablinger, Hülcker explores the hiddenpotential contained in the most radical aesthetics of New Music, namely the suppressed carnal pleasure. The article is an attempt to show the ways how Neo Hülcker redefines the concept of New Music, entering in it the sensual experience of sound.

Language-Independent Hearing Screening Based on Masked Recognition of Ecological Sounds

A language-independent automated self-test on tablet based on masked recognition of ecological sounds, the Sound Ear Check (SEC), was developed. In this test, 24 trials of eight different sounds are randomly presented in a noise that was spectrally shaped according to the average frequency spectra of the stimulus sounds, using a 1-up 2-down adaptive procedure. The test was evaluated in adults with normal hearing and hearing loss, and its feasibility was investigated in young children, who are the target population of this test. Following equalization of perceptual difficulty across sounds by applying level adjustments to the individual tokens, a reference curve with a steep slope of 18%/dB was obtained, resulting in a test with a high test–retest reliability of 1 dB. The SEC sound reception threshold was significantly associated with the averaged pure tone threshold ( r = .70), as well as with the speech reception threshold for the Digit Triplet Test ( r = .79), indicating that the SEC is susceptible to both audibility and signal-to-noise ratio loss. Sensitivity and specificity values on the order of magnitude of ∼70% and ∼80% to detect individuals with mild and moderate hearing loss, respectively, and ∼80% to detect individuals with slight speech-in-noise recognition difficulties were obtained. Homogeneity among sounds was verified in children. Psychometric functions fitted to the data indicated a steep slope of 16%/dB, and test–retest reliability of sound reception threshold estimates was 1.3 dB. A reference value of −9 dB signal-to-noise ratio was obtained. Test duration was around 6 minutes, including training and acclimatization.