Human Ears Make Noise

KeelSpawn points to this article at Discover, which begins: "Until recently, scientists thought human ears were passive devices that detected and processed sounds, but new findings suggest that ears are like perpetually turned on stereo receivers that quiver spontaneously and sing along with incoming sounds."

Comments

Re:Does long ear hair enhance hearing?

[Catskul]

So then, people with long ear hair must hear very well?

Actually No. As said in the article the hairs adjust their length so that they resonate with the incoming sound. The length is critical so it would not help to have longer hairs.

If a person goes blind and his hearing becomes enhanced, then does that mean blindness stimulates ear hair growth?

There is no evidence of this. It is more likely that the brian simply diverts higer order resouces to interpreting sound information.

On a serious note, does this all mean that those who use cotton swabs to clean out the ear canal are actually damaging their hearing because they may be damaging the hairs?

Wrong hairs. I believe the hair that they are refering to are the hair with in the cochlea which is deep which is deep past the eardrum in the inner ear.