Defense Mechanism
The hearing structures of many species have defense mechanisms against injury. For example, the muscles of the middle ear (e.g. the tensor tympani muscle) in many mammals contract reflexively in reaction to loud sounds which may injure the hearing ability of the organism.
The idea that the acoustic reflex is a defense mechanism has been a topic for debate in recent years. Commonly cited counterarguments include:
- The types of sound that produce hearing loss (impact and continuous noise), were not present during the evolutionary history of mammals.
- The muscles that kink the ossicles are among the smallest in the body, and fatigue too quickly to be useful in the capacity of protecting against continuous noise.
- The reflex is too slow to protect against impact noises.
Read more about this topic: Auditive Perception
Famous quotes containing the words defense and/or mechanism:
“The sick man is taken away by the institution that takes charge not of the individual, but of his illness, an isolated object transformed or eliminated by technicians devoted to the defense of health the way others are attached to the defense of law and order or tidiness.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)