Are you left-eared or right-eared?

5 Comments

1. JJ August 26, 2020 Reply

   Read all your email updates, which have become less and less intriguing since video took over. I don’t watch your videos, one was enough. I’m an old Rhesus D Neg at 75. I understand our blood better than you do. I’ve nearly died too many times not to research it. Only a fool let’s others do it for them. I’m intrigued by your theories, impressed by your research, disappointed by your sweeping points of view on some of us. We are more than different, were blessed.

• Mike DammannAuthor August 26, 2020 Reply

  There is no video in this one.

2. Ken August 26, 2020 Reply

   i’ll look at the study later (i’m getting well back-logged w/ things/subjects i want to read/study/consider related to this site right now), but i do think there are brain hemisphere preferences involved. for me, i do think my left ear is more sensitive and do prefer to use my left ear to listen on a phone. fortunately, being left-handed biased ambidextrous and choosing to use my right hand for writing based on it being practical at age 6, i’m able to essentially always use my left ear to listen while using a phone – even if i need to write something down.

3. Ken August 27, 2020 Reply

   fwiw: since i have such extensive movie knowledge (many favorites i’d just listen to them while doing sewing machine repairs & restorations for instance) & music knowledge (huge variety in types/sound patterns and all), i’m often able to identify an movie i like after only hearing maybe 1-3 seconds of it’s sound/voice track. same goes for music heard as well, but two other things i’ve noticed: i can pick-out pieces/sections of similar music that others have largely borrowed and put into a new piece (obviously as long as it’s part of my well liked and very broad music knowledge) & since every human voice is actually unique (although some voices are quite similar sounding) i’m able to pick-out individual human voices famous or not that i’m aware familiar w/ just by hearing them for again 1-3 seconds in situations they normally wouldn’t be in. i haven’t seen other people do these things well or makes these comments and observations that i do when they happen. maybe most don’t care, but i think it’s probably related to the ability that some have w/ perfect pitch and the ability of some to play musical instruments very well/sing well to.

4. Ken August 30, 2020 Reply

   Published in final edited form as: Laterality. 2012 Mar; 17(2): 129–149.
   Laterality of Basic Auditory Perception … by Yvonne S. Sininger and Anjali Bhatara https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294255/

   — from the study you linked to above Mike —

   “” Both the sex and the handedness of the listener can influence laterality. Male participants show more asymmetry in performance of tasks related to language and speech processing than their female counterparts (McGlone, 1980; Shaywitz et al., 1995; Brown, Fitch, & Tallal, 1999; McGlone, 1980; Jones & Byrne, 1998). In addition, left handed subjects are more likely to show opposite patterns of laterality, especially right hemisphere dominance for language/speech processing (Knecht et al., 2000; Jones & Byrne, 1998). “”

   “” Listeners
   Thirty- four adult participants were enrolled in this study, 17 each males and females, ranging in age from 18 to 32 years with a mean of 23.88 years. All subjects were right handed as measured by the Edinburgh Laterality Scale (Oldfield, 1971). In the scoring convention, +100 is completely right handed and −100 is completely left handed. The mean handedness score of participants was 97.16 with a range of 71–100. The average years of formal education of the subjects was 15.69 with a range of 12–22 years. “” … “” All participants had normally appearing tympanic membranes and un-occluded ear canals on otoscopic examination and demonstrated normal middle ear function by tympanometry, with middle ear pressure ranging from −15 to +65 daPa and compliance ranging from 0.3 to 2.1 ml. Air conducted hearing thresholds were measured on a standard clinical audiometer (Interacoustics AC-40) at octave frequencies from 500 to 8000 Hz. The mean average threshold for both ears was 2.35 dB HL with a range of −2 to 13 dB. No individual threshold was greater than 25 dB at 500 Hz nor greater than 20 dB at all other frequencies. In addition, all listeners demonstrated normal cochlear function based on a distortion-product otoacoustic emission test (Biologic Scout). DPOAES exceeded noise floor levels by 6 dB or more for 3 of 5 frequencies between 1500 and 8000 Hz for each ear of all listeners. “”

   “” Psychophysics
   Experiments were designed to evaluate a) frequency discrimination, b) intensity discrimination and c) temporal gap detection thresholds (GDTs). Where possible, both broad-band noise and tonal stimuli were employed in these measures. In addition, within these paradigms, stimuli were chosen to evaluate laterality based on stimulus bandwidth and duration. For each experiment, a three alternative forced choice (3-AFCT) paradigm was employed. “” … “” Three token stimuli were presented for each trial with one of the three, in random order, varying on the experimental parameter. The inter-stimulus interval were 500 ms in length. The stimulus presentations corresponded to lights on a response box. The subject was instructed to listen to all three, watching the indicator lights and then to indicate which of the three stimuli differed from the standard by pressing the corresponding button. Feedback on the correct choice was provided immediately as the light corresponding to the correct choice button was illuminated. “”

   “” Subject factors that were expected to influence laterality were carefully controlled. Handedness and gender were controlled as described above. In order to perform the discrimination task, the subjects’ attention was necessarily focused on the task. No further direction of attention was used. “”

   “” Duration of the stimuli was manipulated during the frequency discrimination experiments and bandwidth was manipulated during the intensity discrimination experiments as shown below. “”

   “” In addition to evaluating laterality of frequency, intensity and temporal resolution, the experiments were designed to evaluate the effect of overall duration and stimulus bandwidth on the laterality of the response. This was accomplished by varying the duration of the tones used for frequency discrimination using 200, 500 and 1000 ms durations and by using three bandwidths of stimuli for the intensity discrimination. “””

   “” Procedure
   All testing took place in a single walled, sound attenuating booth. Following consent procedures, listeners were screened for normal ear functions using otoscopy, tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions and standard audiometry. Listeners were instructed on the use of response box, told to indicate the one stimulus in three that differed from the others. They were told that the distinctions would be easy to detect at first, eventually would be very difficult and were instructed to guess when unsure. “” … “” The stimulus manipulations and ear of presentation were also randomized prior to each subject. The entire experimental procedure was performed in one or two sessions and lasted approximately three hours including frequent breaks between experiments. “”

   “” Music Training
   Formal music training has been shown to improve some auditory skills, particularly frequency discrimination, but the effect of music training on the laterality of processing has not been examined. The years of formal music training ranged from 0 to 11 years. “”

   “” Implications
   The results of this study add to a growing body of evidence that the left and right ears demonstrate asymmetric function reflecting the expected hemispheric asymmetry and that the asymmetry is based on the type of stimulus being processed. These experiments demonstrated that when stimuli are presented to the left ear, a slight but consistent advantage is shown when processing tonal stimuli as was seen in previous studies of gap detection… “” … “” Clearly, the auditory cortex, which has been shown to be involved in lateralized auditory processing in adults could be driving laterality at all other levels. “”

   “” However, given the number of studies that have found lateralized auditory function, including the present study, the assumption that the left and right ears function interchangeably must be challenged. “”

   — my comment: yes, they only tested right handers and they were very right-handed biased. so this study didn’t do any studies about lefty or left-handed biased individuals and how lateralization is exhibited in them. though i think they did admit that the hemisphere usage is more-or-less reversed for the non-righty-biased. —

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