How do my ears sense direction?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do we know where a sound is coming from?

Another chance to hear this ear-opening episode, exploring a question from CrowdScience listener Chiletso. One day, he heard his son bounce a ball and instantly knew the direction it was travelling. How?

Anand Jagatia sets out to discover what makes left, right, up and down sound so different.

First, he gets blindfolded, so Alan Archer-Boyd, former auditory scientist and lead engineer at BBC R&D, can put his sound localisation skills to the test. It turns out that having two ears and pinnae, those flappy bits of cartilage on the side of your head, help a lot.

Professor Eric Knudsen shares how the barn owl’s asymmetrical ears allow it to hunt mice, even in complete darkness.

And Anand uncovers how far he can push his own spatial hearing. Blind activist and researcher Thomas Tajo teaches him how to echolocate like a bat, and Dr Lore Thaler explains what is going on in the brain of experienced echolocators.

This programme was originally broadcast in March 2023.

Presented by Anand Jagatia Produced by Florian Bohr for the BBC World Service

Image: Boy with hands at his ears Credit: Silke Woweries/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.5	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.6	Hello crowd science listeners this is Anna and Jagatia. This week we are going to be
0:36.4	revisiting one of my favorite episodes from 2023 which is all about how our ears sense
0:42.4	direction.
0:44.0	This is an episode that I absolutely loved making.
0:47.0	It took us to some really surprising and fascinating places.
0:51.0	It's also full of some really beautiful and immersive sound design. So if you have
0:55.8	headphones, then do put them on to listen. But just before we start the show, I have a very
1:00.7	quick request. We are currently working on an episode all about
1:04.8	maths and specifically how people feel about this divisive subject. See what I
1:11.0	did there. So for that episode we would really love to hear from you about what
1:16.2	your relationship is with math. Did you hate it at school? Did you struggle with it? Did you love it? Do you still love it? If you have got any stories that you'd like to share about
1:25.9	your relationship with mathematics, you can reach us at crowd science at BBC.co.uk. Okay, on with the show. If you imagine that you have a lake, so
1:39.4	imagine a lake in your mind. Hello and welcome to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service.
1:45.0	I'm Anan Jagatier and we're starting this show on your own personal desert island.
1:51.0	Imagine that you're standing on a tiny piece of land
	...

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