Hearing

Abstract

Although hearing is valuable to most animals—the ability to detect the footfall of a predator in the underbrush may be the difference between life and death—it is particularly useful to human beings, whose daily communication relies heavily on spoken language. Actually, the inability to hear speech is less an impediment in modern society than is the inability to speak understandably. Deafness per se is little more than an inconvenience, since the deaf can learn to read lips or sign language. Ironically, the greater handicap for a deaf person is her own inevitably poor enunciation. Even the speech of the most eloquent orator deterio- rates rapidly if not self-monitored. This dependence of speech—clearly a motor function—on the sense of hearing is yet another dramatic example of the critical role of sensory feedback in behavioral control.