this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Wouldn't surgery like that completely destroy your ability to detect direction of sound?

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 21 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Just partially. It would likely create problems with pinna cues needed for vertical and front vs back sound localization.

Over the years, the work of Robert Butler and others has demonstrated that the directionality of the pinna not only provides the primary cues for vertical localization and for preventing front--back confusions, but also provides effective cues for localizing sound in the horizontal plane (e.g., Butler, R. A., 1975; Musicant, A. D. and Butler, R. A., 1985a,b). Indeed, as noted by Butler, R. A. (1999), “We live in a world where many sounds emanating from the side are not sufficiently intense to stimulate the opposite ear”, in which case a binaural comparison only indicates that the sound source is somewhere within the hemifield of the ear receiving the sound and, in the absence of pinna cues, may result in the perception of the sound being located within the ear itself. Thus, there are situations in which the pinnae provide the only locus cues as to the horizontal and vertical location of a sound source within a hemifield.

Source: Heffner, H. E. & Heffner, R. S. (2008). High-frequency hearing.

[–] drem@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Thanks for sharing, I'm always interested in these topics

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