What cats and dogs hear + A 'smell map' of the nose
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Flora Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday.
Hi, I'm Paul. I'm calling from Davis, California. And my question is, what is it about dogs and cats that makes them able to hear a much wider range of sound frequencies than humans?
Good question, Paul. Why do our fave animal companions seem to be able to hear things we can't? Is it their ears? Is it their brains? And what would life be like if you could hear the world through your dog's ears? Here to fetch us some answers is Dr. Pete Shifley.
Why can dogs and cats hear a wider range of frequencies than humans?
He's a neuroaudiologist at the University of Cincinnati and the executive director of the Fetch Lab, an animal audiology clinic and research lab. Pete, welcome to Science Friday.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
The Fetch Lab sounds like a pretty cool place to work.
Well, I and my medical and audiology students think so. It's way out of the norm. I mean, audiologists work with humans, but we are the first group to actually work with audiology of animals.
It's a one-of-a-kind lab.
Yes, absolutely.
Wow. Okay, let's get to Paul's question. First of all, do cats and dogs hear a wider range of frequencies than we do? Is that true?
Yes, absolutely. Humans can only hear frequencies from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. But dogs, and to an extent cats, can actually hear starting at 30 hertz, but they can hear all the way up to 57 kilohertz. So they're very on the high end of things. They have it covered and we can't hear those frequencies.
And what allows them to do this? Is it their ears or how their brains process the sound?
It's a little bit of both. Over the millennia, the ear has changed from the most primitive animals. When the ears change, they change because of some reason that that animal needs to be able to hear those frequencies. So, for instance, a bat can hear way up into almost 500 you know, kilohertz. But it's also, when it's looking for food, it's looking for primarily mosquitoes and June bugs, which are very small. So a low frequency, the bat wouldn't even know that the mosquito was there. It has to be high frequency so that the wavelength is so small that the bat can hear it. But when it comes down to dogs and cats, basically, A dog's ear has more hair cells in it, outer hair cells, which allow it to hear the frequencies that we cannot.
So the ear had to change for that particular animal. And over time, it did.
Hair cells. That's the key. Different hair cells.
Yep.
Paul, our listener who kicked off this quest was curious about what this all means for the experience of pets. And he gave this example.
My mom is practically deaf. And so when she does anything around the house, the volume is at 10. And I'm just wondering if there are other people out there that have pets, if they're like, are they listening to the TV too loud? Are they listening to NPR too loud? And is it bothering their pets? And maybe they can do something to make their pets' lives more comfortable.
Pete, is public radio torturing pets across the nation?
It can. So dogs and cats and a myriad of other mammals are subject to noise-induced hearing loss just like a person is. And so, yes, if things are playing loud, you know, dogs that are in the house and kids got a rock band going in the garage and, you know, yes, they will suffer eventually a hearing loss, noise induced hearing loss.
Do people bring in their pets with hearing loss to the fetch lab?
We don't see many pet dogs that have a noise-induced hearing loss, unless sometimes you get the hunting dogs. And so the dog is being shot over. And so eventually, if they don't use some kind of hearing protection for the dog, the dog will lose its hearing. But basically, every Friday, we see puppies for testing for congenital deafness. special operations, military dogs, and homeland security dogs.
Are there dog breeds that suffer from deafness, congenital deafness, more than other breeds?
Yes, absolutely. So we think that when 101 Dalmatians came out, a lot of people wanted a Dalmatian puppy. Breeding went rampant. People weren't watching what they were doing from a genetic point of view.
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