Why do old men have big ears?

Heathcote, James

doi:10.1136/bmj.311.7021.1668

Cited by 59 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…2 The shape, size and orientation of each external ear is unique as fingerprint but it is plausible to make some conclusion; males have larger ears than their female's counterpart. 3 Ears increase in both length and width with increase in age, 4 from birth to 99 years of age. The increment was continuous in females, but for males it stopped around age of 50 and 70 for ear width and length, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropometric Measurements of Human External Ear.

Shireen¹,

Karadkhelkar²

2015

jemds

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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:This study aimed at determining the normal anthropometric measurements of external ear in males and females and their comparison on either sides and in either sex. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out on 147 medical students of BRIMS, Bidar Karnataka with no evidence of congenital ear anomalies or previous ear surgeries. The study cohort consisted of 70 females and 77 males aged 18-25years. Vernier Calipers were used to measure the bilateral sizes of auricles. Parameters were total ear height, ear width, lobular height and lobular width. OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS: It was observed that all parameters were significantly larger on right side in both males and females which was statistically significant. All measurements were found higher in males than in females on both sides, total ear height and ear width were found to be significantly greater. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the normal anthropometric study will have implications in the cosmetic surgeries, correction of malformations, designing of head phones, ear phones and hearing aids. KEYWORDS: Anthropometry, Morphometry, Ear Lobule, Auricle, Vernier Calipers. INTRODUCTION:Anthropometry refers to the measurements of living human body dimensions for the purpose of understanding human physical variation as it plays an important role in plastic surgery, prosthetics and so on for data collection. 1 The human ear is divided into external, middle and internal parts. Pinna and external acoustic meatus form the external ear. The external ear is composed of three primary components: the helix-ant helical complex, the conchal complex, and the lobe. 2 The shape, size and orientation of each external ear is unique as fingerprint but it is plausible to make some conclusion; males have larger ears than their female's counterpart. 3 Ears increase in both length and width with increase in age, 4 from birth to 99 years of age. The increment was continuous in females, but for males it stopped around age of 50 and 70 for ear width and length, respectively.The mean values of different age groups such as 4-5 (34.16mm), 15-17 (35.74mm), 18-30 (34.51mm) and 31-40 (35.72mm) for auricular width and 4-5 (50.30mm), 15-17 (60.26), 18-30 (56.11) and 31-40 (58.43) for auricular length were documented. 5 There is always need for anthropometric data for a given population especially for the need of identification as well as designing products suitable for utility by the population. The ear dimension is one of such variables whose information is vital for ear reconstruction, ear related instruments among others. The present study aimed at determining the normal anthropometric measurements of external ear in males and females and their comparison on either sides and in either sex as no such study has been conducted so far in this institute.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropometric Measurements of Human External Ear.

Shireen¹,

Karadkhelkar²

2015

jemds

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“…1) was reported to be the best (single) predictor for the frequency notch at 0°in elevation (Algazi et al 2001). Interestingly, the pinna, in particular its concha height, keeps growing throughout life (Heathcote 1995;Niemitz 2007). As a result, the reflective pathways into the ear canal gradually lengthen, thereby shifting the major spectral notches to lower frequencies.…”

Section: Older Listenersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related Hearing Loss and Ear Morphology Affect Vertical but not Horizontal Sound-Localization Performance

Otte

Agterberg

Wanrooij

et al. 2013

JARO

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Several studies have attributed deterioration of sound localization in the horizontal (azimuth) and vertical (elevation) planes to an age-related decline in binaural processing and high-frequency hearing loss (HFHL). The latter might underlie decreased elevation performance of older adults. However, as the pinnae keep growing throughout life, we hypothesized that larger ears might enable older adults to localize sounds in elevation on the basis of lower frequencies, thus (partially) compensating their HFHL. In addition, it is not clear whether sound localization has already matured at a very young age, when the body is still growing, and the binaural and monaural sound-localization cues change accordingly. The present study investigated sound-localization performance of children (7-11 years), young adults (20-34 years), and older adults (63-80 years) under open-loop conditions in the two-dimensional frontal hemifield. We studied the effect of age-related hearing loss and ear size on localization responses to brief broadband sound bursts with different bandwidths. We found similar localization abilities in azimuth for all listeners, including the older adults with HFHL. Sound localization in elevation for the children and young adult listeners with smaller ears improved when stimuli contained frequencies above 7 kHz. Subjects with larger ears could also judge the elevation of sound sources restricted to lower frequency content. Despite increasing ear size, sound localization in elevation deteriorated in older adults with HFHL. We conclude that the binaural localization cues are successfully used well into later stages of life, but that pinna growth cannot compensate the more profound HFHL with age.

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“…Our observed insignificant differences concerning this trait do not confirm this hypothesis. Furthermore, males have generally bigger ears than females (Healthcote 1995) and ear dimensions change through the process of growth (Meijerman et al, 2007), but ear form does not. In fact, according to the method of MartinSaller descriptive auricular shape is not extensively investigated worldwide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological characteristics of auricula in children from Kyustendil region (Southwest Bulgaria)

Pirinska-Apostolou¹,

Angelova²,

Apostolou³

2015

Glas Antr Drus Srbije

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Abstract.The shape of human auricula is characterized by specific features. The diversity of these individual characteristics can be used in forensic identification of individuals. Inter -and intrapopulation variability in the shape of auricula is not thoroughly investigated neither in Bulgaria, nor worldwide. The present study was conducted in the town of Kyustendil (Southwest Bulgaria). The examined sample comprised 240 individuals of both sexes -120 school boys and 120 school girls (11 to 18 years of age). The shape of auricula and the absence/presence of tuberculum auriculae Darwini were defined by the scale of Schwalbe-Martin and Saller (1959). The most common form of both ears in the examined group is form 6 (60.00%) followed by form 3 with 20.83%. When an additional tuberculum Darwini was present, it was mostly asymmetrically positioned in both sexes. High percentage of individuals with ears positioned in a greater distance from the surface of the head was also established. Within the examined male group, 20.83% had prominent ears, the percentage was higher in comparison with the females, where the percentage was 1.66 % lower than in males.

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Why do old men have big ears?

Cited by 59 publications

References 0 publications

Anthropometric Measurements of Human External Ear.

Anthropometric Measurements of Human External Ear.

Age-related Hearing Loss and Ear Morphology Affect Vertical but not Horizontal Sound-Localization Performance

Morphological characteristics of auricula in children from Kyustendil region (Southwest Bulgaria)

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