"They just hear us": how animals perceive sound
We are accustomed to thinking that the main “channel” through which sound enters the brain is ears. Virtually all animals that we encounter in everyday life or see in zoos, react to our presence by turning the ears - cats, dogs, elephants or feneki .
There are animals that have no ears. It does not make them deaf. The range of sounds that some animals can perceive is very different from "human". All of this will continue to talk under the cut.
Photo of Philippe Put CC
The protagonist of the famous " Songs about a grasshopper ", which children love to catch, perfectly hears the world around. Grasshoppers, like crickets, use the front legs, which have a sensitive membrane, as the audio channel. This "sensor" can perceive sound waves with an amplitude equal to the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Grasshoppers of some species are able to feel minimal changes in the environment, including seismic activity, and move to a safe place for themselves long before earthquakes.
Fish also do not have ears in the usual sense (for sure, if they were, then the streamlined body shape would be greatly disturbed). But the hearing of these aquatic inhabitants is wonderful: the fish feel the vibrations of the sound through small holes that run all the way from head to tail. All sound waves that catch these receptors are converted into impulses, then they enter the swim bladder. This organ, acting as a sound amplifier, transmits it to the inner ear (which is very similar in structure to the human one), and then the signal is processed by the brain.
And whales generally get audio through the throat, and then through a special channel leading to the inner ear. Although, according to the alternative version, the whales have an auditory opening that opens behind the eye.
The crocodile has ears, but they are not visible, since its auricle is closed by a membrane during immersion in water. The auditory openings themselves are outside protected by a bone protrusion. The middle ear of crocodiles is represented by only one bone - a stirrup; it conducts sound to the inner ear. Some scientists believe that crocodiles hear perfectly well under water, although they probably just perceive the vibrations of water with their tactile receptors.
Ants in the perception of sound are a bit like grasshoppers: they have special sensors on their paws and antennae that detect changes in vibrations. At the same time, ants feel vibrations not only in the air, but also through the surfaces - trees, leaves, etc. Ant organs do not need shells, such as the human ear, because ants do not need to pick up sound waves flying through the air. For the perception of audio information, ants have so-called scolipids , string-like organs, stretched between the insect's skeleton and the membrane. This system turns vibrations and vibrations into nerve impulses.
Admit it, those who have a cat or a dog at home have tried at least once in their life to evaluate the reaction of their pet to the sound of a particular song or film. Scientists seriously thought about the question of how animals perceive music and exactly agreed on one thing: they, like us, can divide music into the one that they like and the one that is unpleasant to them.
Zoopsychologists pay attention to the fact that it is simply impossible to get a more accurate answer, because even people perceive music differently. The range of perception of sound in animals is different, and you should not forget about the emotions and associations that this or that music causes. (We already wrote about how music works with human emotions).
Veterinarian Charles Snowdon (Charles Snowdon) claims that animals hear music differently from us. Hearing from pets is much sharper than ours, and the range of perception of sounds in dogs and cats is wider than in humans. Therefore, animals do not "distinguish" (in our usual sense) rock, reggae or hip-hop. For them, human music is a whole ocean of sounds and noises that are not always pleasant - and are not always audible by the person himself.
But American composer David Teie composed relaxing music for cats. The Washington Post newspaper immediately conducted an experiment ( link to the video ) and checked how the animals react to such music.
In his feline compositions, Thea, for example, samples the snare sound and speeds it up to the frequency of feline rumble. According to the composer himself, if you just record something like purring, then a fluffy audience quickly loses interest. Therefore, Tei is trying to “tickle their brains” so that the cats think: “I don’t know what it is, but I definitely like it!”.
The composer studied the cat's rumble oscillograms and found out that every single sound consists of two: double beats, similar to a rapid heartbeat. The man does not hear them, but the cats hear.
Then on top of the "purrs" was imposed "party meowing kittens" in a very high range. Tei played two notes on the violin, and then transposed them two octaves up on the computer. By the way, the cello in "music for cats" gives the opportunity to enjoy such works and people, but first you need to get used to the background rumbling.
Cellist Tei has written music for cats since 2003, in such an unusual way he wants to formulate his Universal Music Theory, according to which, music, bypassing consciousness, affects deep-seated emotions, using for this purpose the sounds that surround the fetus in the womb when the brain is still not formed.
This music, in his opinion, is equally valid for people and animals. According to Tei, there is no coincidence that the music that a person considers relaxing, coincides in tempo with his mother’s pulse at rest, and the sound spectrum of a violin - the most popular classical instrument - coincides with the spectrum of a female voice. He even conducted an experiment on monkeys and published a detailed report .
So David Tei, a few years later, recorded the first album of relaxing music for cats, the effectiveness of which was tested on animals in the cat-cafe "Cats and Mustaches". It is still unclear what kind of emotions this music causes in cats, but the promotional video for cat music came out very touching.
Therefore, now, leaving home, it is worthwhile to include your pets not Guns N 'Roses - it is better to use the invention of David Thea and not to injure shaggy ears.
PS What else do we write on GT:
There are animals that have no ears. It does not make them deaf. The range of sounds that some animals can perceive is very different from "human". All of this will continue to talk under the cut.
Photo of Philippe Put CC
If no ears
The protagonist of the famous " Songs about a grasshopper ", which children love to catch, perfectly hears the world around. Grasshoppers, like crickets, use the front legs, which have a sensitive membrane, as the audio channel. This "sensor" can perceive sound waves with an amplitude equal to the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Grasshoppers of some species are able to feel minimal changes in the environment, including seismic activity, and move to a safe place for themselves long before earthquakes.
Fish also do not have ears in the usual sense (for sure, if they were, then the streamlined body shape would be greatly disturbed). But the hearing of these aquatic inhabitants is wonderful: the fish feel the vibrations of the sound through small holes that run all the way from head to tail. All sound waves that catch these receptors are converted into impulses, then they enter the swim bladder. This organ, acting as a sound amplifier, transmits it to the inner ear (which is very similar in structure to the human one), and then the signal is processed by the brain.
And whales generally get audio through the throat, and then through a special channel leading to the inner ear. Although, according to the alternative version, the whales have an auditory opening that opens behind the eye.
The crocodile has ears, but they are not visible, since its auricle is closed by a membrane during immersion in water. The auditory openings themselves are outside protected by a bone protrusion. The middle ear of crocodiles is represented by only one bone - a stirrup; it conducts sound to the inner ear. Some scientists believe that crocodiles hear perfectly well under water, although they probably just perceive the vibrations of water with their tactile receptors.
Ants in the perception of sound are a bit like grasshoppers: they have special sensors on their paws and antennae that detect changes in vibrations. At the same time, ants feel vibrations not only in the air, but also through the surfaces - trees, leaves, etc. Ant organs do not need shells, such as the human ear, because ants do not need to pick up sound waves flying through the air. For the perception of audio information, ants have so-called scolipids , string-like organs, stretched between the insect's skeleton and the membrane. This system turns vibrations and vibrations into nerve impulses.
How do they hear the music
Admit it, those who have a cat or a dog at home have tried at least once in their life to evaluate the reaction of their pet to the sound of a particular song or film. Scientists seriously thought about the question of how animals perceive music and exactly agreed on one thing: they, like us, can divide music into the one that they like and the one that is unpleasant to them.
Zoopsychologists pay attention to the fact that it is simply impossible to get a more accurate answer, because even people perceive music differently. The range of perception of sound in animals is different, and you should not forget about the emotions and associations that this or that music causes. (We already wrote about how music works with human emotions).
Veterinarian Charles Snowdon (Charles Snowdon) claims that animals hear music differently from us. Hearing from pets is much sharper than ours, and the range of perception of sounds in dogs and cats is wider than in humans. Therefore, animals do not "distinguish" (in our usual sense) rock, reggae or hip-hop. For them, human music is a whole ocean of sounds and noises that are not always pleasant - and are not always audible by the person himself.
But American composer David Teie composed relaxing music for cats. The Washington Post newspaper immediately conducted an experiment ( link to the video ) and checked how the animals react to such music.
In his feline compositions, Thea, for example, samples the snare sound and speeds it up to the frequency of feline rumble. According to the composer himself, if you just record something like purring, then a fluffy audience quickly loses interest. Therefore, Tei is trying to “tickle their brains” so that the cats think: “I don’t know what it is, but I definitely like it!”.
The composer studied the cat's rumble oscillograms and found out that every single sound consists of two: double beats, similar to a rapid heartbeat. The man does not hear them, but the cats hear.
Then on top of the "purrs" was imposed "party meowing kittens" in a very high range. Tei played two notes on the violin, and then transposed them two octaves up on the computer. By the way, the cello in "music for cats" gives the opportunity to enjoy such works and people, but first you need to get used to the background rumbling.
Cellist Tei has written music for cats since 2003, in such an unusual way he wants to formulate his Universal Music Theory, according to which, music, bypassing consciousness, affects deep-seated emotions, using for this purpose the sounds that surround the fetus in the womb when the brain is still not formed.
This music, in his opinion, is equally valid for people and animals. According to Tei, there is no coincidence that the music that a person considers relaxing, coincides in tempo with his mother’s pulse at rest, and the sound spectrum of a violin - the most popular classical instrument - coincides with the spectrum of a female voice. He even conducted an experiment on monkeys and published a detailed report .
So David Tei, a few years later, recorded the first album of relaxing music for cats, the effectiveness of which was tested on animals in the cat-cafe "Cats and Mustaches". It is still unclear what kind of emotions this music causes in cats, but the promotional video for cat music came out very touching.
Therefore, now, leaving home, it is worthwhile to include your pets not Guns N 'Roses - it is better to use the invention of David Thea and not to injure shaggy ears.
PS What else do we write on GT:
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