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Comparative Auditory Neuroscience: Understanding the Evolution and Function of Ears

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Abstract

Comparative auditory studies make it possible both to understand the origins of modern ears and the factors underlying the similarities and differences in their performance. After all lineages of land vertebrates had independently evolved tympanic middle ears in the early Mesozoic era, the subsequent tens of millions of years led to the hearing organ of lizards, birds, and mammals becoming larger and their upper frequency limits higher. In extant species, lizard papillae remained relatively small (<2 mm), but avian papillae attained a maximum length of 11 mm, with the highest frequencies in both groups near 12 kHz. Hearing-organ sizes in modern mammals vary more than tenfold, up to >70 mm (made possible by coiling), as do their upper frequency limits (from 12 to >200 kHz). The auditory organs of the three amniote groups differ characteristically in their cellular structure, but their hearing sensitivity and frequency selectivity within their respective hearing ranges hardly differ. In the immediate primate ancestors of humans, the cochlea became larger and lowered its upper frequency limit. Modern humans show an unusual trend in frequency selectivity as a function of frequency. It is conceivable that the frequency selectivity patterns in humans were influenced in their evolution by the development of speech.

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Acknowledgments

The themes of this review were the basis of the Award of Merit address at the 2016 Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. I thank the ARO for the honor of the award, the many colleagues, and students whose cooperation over 45 years helped in the development of the ideas expressed in this review and Christine Köppl and Pim an Dijk for their introductions to my talk. Special thanks also to Ulrike Sienknecht for creating two of the figures and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) that funded most of the comparative work of my research group.

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  1. Cochlear and Auditory Brainstem Physiology, Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”, Research Centre Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Strasse 9-11, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    Geoffrey A. Manley

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Correspondence to Geoffrey A. Manley.

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This paper was given as the Award of Merit lecture at the 2016 ARO Midwinter Meeting in San Diego.

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Manley, G.A. Comparative Auditory Neuroscience: Understanding the Evolution and Function of Ears. JARO 18, 1–24 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-016-0579-3

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