How to hear, and listen for the unsaid

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Hearing is one of the five senses, and listening is part of the sixth. We capture sound, filter out the noise, and pass it on to our brain. This intricate process of hearing is just one of the many inputs that set a chain of thoughts. What we see, feel, smell, and taste add on to inputs to help us think, analyse and interpret. Once we begin to make sense of words, its emotions, and expressions we transcend from hearing to listening. More we listen, words loose their literal meaning, and it is the unsaid that remains in our memory. While science may have figured out hearing, listening is something we are yet to unravel.

The science of hearing

We have a tiny sound receiver, hidden deep inside a bony canal. All sounds we hear, pass on through our ears, to this canal. Once inside sound is converted to electrical impulses, for brain to process.

This sound receiver is coiled, like a labyrinth. Sound waves stroke fine membranes inside this labyrinth to stimulate endings of a nerve. Georg von Bekesy, a Hungarian scientist unravelled this process, and earned a Nobel Prize in medicine in 1961. We call this labyrinthine part of ear as cochlea.

Right next to cochlea are three pretzel like, semicircular structures, each one in a different plane. These three are semicircular canals that help us judge how straight or rotated we are. This is our balance sensor, or the vestibule. Sometimes, when this vestibule gets disturbed, our head starts spinning, and eyes may fail to remain still. Endre Hogyes, another Hungarian scientist discovered this relation. He is depicted on the postage stamp from Hungary.

Sounds-Signals-Sounds

Sounds generate signals. As soon as this signal reaches our brain, we interpret it as a sound. Right from birth, we train our brain to understand sounds. It is possible that our brain has a library of sounds when are are born, but we keep adding on to it as we hear new ones. Every bit is recorded and saved somewhere it seems, for us to recall when we want to.

Data miners and search engines must be envious of our sound library. A mere thought can quickly retrieve a melody, lyric, speech and dialogues. Often this memory comes with an entire imagery of the occasion, with all the faces and colours that were there. We seem to do better with the sounds we want to remember more, and less better with the ones we would rather forget.

We need to hear to speak

We need to hear more and more sounds, to develop speech and language. Sometimes, our hearing is at a loss from birth or early childhood. Our speech also suffers in this process. In healthcare, speech therapists help us gain speech. This speech may be verbal or at times a sign language. Before any assistive hearing devices or cochlear implants were developed, sign languages were the only communication option. Even today sign languages are commonly used by children or adults who cannot hear well.

These gestures, along with expressions, touch and lip reading can be used to train those hard of hearing. Many postage stamps have used these hand gestures to depict hearing disabilities. Sign languages have often led to societal debates. On one hand they are beneficial, while on the other some believe, that it leads to social prejudices. While the debate persists, we hope that assistive hearing becomes a universally available option.

Art of listening the unsaid

While we train our minds to hear and interpret, we fine tune the process as we grow. We move from hearing to listening, and even un-listening what we hear. Life, is probably a long performance where unsaid often starts taking a precedence. We all must listen to the unsaid, and more so.

There is no singular recipe on how to listen. We however do need to listen, to a tiny tear in the corner of the eye, or a sad smile, fears, apprehensions, and to expressions of despair. We also need to listen to the silence behind the applause, that may be appreciation, but could also be defiance or dismay. In the stimulus of all the beautiful sounds, unsaid is at times more powerful than the said. While hearing may be science, to listen is an art.