How Good Is Rats Hearing?
WouterThe question of how good is rats hearing has long puzzled scientists. These rodents live underground where oxygen is scarce. They are very sensitive to pain and their hearing has been the subject of much research. However, it’s still unclear whether rats can hear sounds that are difficult for us to hear. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how good a rat’s hearing is and whether it’s anything worth worrying about.
Rats have an amazing range of sounds they can detect. Humans’ hearing range extends up to about 20,000 Hertz, but rats’ hearing spans much higher than this. In fact, rats can hear sound frequencies of up to 70,000 Hz. They are highly sensitive to sounds in these ranges, and they use their keen sense of hearing to communicate and locate food sources.
Despite this, however, a new study has shown that mole rats’ hearing is significantly poorer than that of human newborns. The researchers measured mole rats’ auditory nerve responses and found that they are less sensitive to noise than mice. This means that they cannot hear bass tones that are below six kilohertz.
Researchers have discovered that mole rat hearing impairment is caused by gene changes. The researchers analysed mole rat transcriptomes to identify which genes are associated with hearing loss. The researchers also compared the changes in the mole rat’s genes with mutations found in humans with hearing loss.
