The old adage is that mothers have eyes on the back of their heads, but a new study shows that women in general can also have a more sensitive audition.
The study, recently published in Scientific Reports, sought to examine the correlation between multiple factors, including gender, age and region, among others, and auditory sensitivity.
Patricia Balaresque, Ph.D., at the Biodiversity and Environmental Research Center in Toulouse, France, directed a team of scientists to perform auditory tests on 448 people from 13 global communities in Ecuador, England, Gabon, South Africa and Uzbekistan.
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The results show that hearing sensitivity is mainly influenced by gender and the environment, followed by age and left ear versus the right ear.
“Our findings challenge existing assumptions and highlight the need to consider biological and environmental factors when studying the hearing,” said Balaresque in a press release.
A new study, recently published in Scientific Reports, shows that women can have a more sensitive audition. (Istock)
Scientists measured the auditory sensitivity using autumnic emissions evoked by transitory (Teoae), which evaluate the capacity of the cochlea to produce and transmit an acoustic response after sound stimulation.
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The cochlea is a spiral -shaped cavity full of fluids into the internal ear that converts sound waves into electrical impulses that the brain can interpret, according to medical sources.
When analyzing Teoae profiles, the researchers obtained valuable information about how the cochlea responds to external auditory stimuli.
The scientists measured the auditory sensitivity recording the internal ears of the small subjects sent again in response to the click sounds. (Istock)
To calculate the auditory sensitivity, a small device played a sound of click on the ear of the test subjects and then recorded the small sounds that the internal ear sent in response, the results of the study detailed.
These return signals, which are created by cells in the cochlea, provide a reliable indication of how sensitive the ear.
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Then, the researchers examined the signals, including how strong they were (measured in decibels, a unit used to transmit the relative intensity or volume of a sound) and what frequencies responded more strongly.
They also compared variations based on a variety of factors, including the sex of the subjects, the age, the ear that was tested and the type of environment in which they lived.
According to researchers, the fact that women show greater sensitivity that hearing can be a real biological factor. (Istock)
Throughout the tests, women constantly showed greater sensitivity, in an average of two decibels in all sampled populations.
“We were surprised to discover that women had two more sensitive decibels in all the populations we measure, and this represented most of the variations between people,” said the study co -author, Turi King, professor and director of the Milner evolution center at the University of Bath, in the statement.
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“This could be due to the different exposure to hormones during development in the uterus, because men and women have slight structural differences in cochlear anatomy.”
Women also work better in other hearing tests and speech perception, indicating that their brains are better to process information, according to King.
“Having a more sensitive audition in noisy environments may not always be something good.”
“We really don’t know why this could be, but given the detrimental effect of noise on general health, such as sleep quality and increased cardiovascular disease, having a more sensitive audition in noisy environments may not always be something good,” he added.
While the differences in age were also a factor in auditory sensitivity (with old age linked to a worse hearing), it was less pronounced than the differences between the sexes.
People in urban environments had auditory profiles that changed at higher frequencies, perhaps due to the constant lower sounds in the city, the study suggests. (Istock)
Other findings in the study included the way in which ecological environments can affect auditory sensitivity.
For those in urban environments, the auditory profiles changed to higher frequencies, which could be due to the constant buzzing of the city traffic and noises in urban environments, the scientists raised the hypothesis.
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The greatest contrast was found among the groups that live in populations of great altitude versus tropical environments, and the latter has greater ear sensitivity.
This could be the result of living in areas with less humans in the environment, or a trait inherited from the type of wild environment where surveillance is essential for survival, the researchers said.
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Professor King added: “We know that humans continue to evolve, so the next question is whether our audition can change in response to different environments in general or if there are genetic adaptations involved.”
