Human upper hearing range collapses above 16 kHz during the twenties
Evidence
The nominal range of human hearing is usually quoted as being from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but during a person’s twenties the upper frequency region reduces greatly in the range above about 16 kHz. The mosquito unit exploits this by emitting a sound between 16 and 19 kHz, which can only be heard by those less than 20–25 years of age. The usual range over which the mosquito operates as a deterrent is around 15–25 m. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2565
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SHARE: Send to an audiologist or hearing researcher — the precise claim that hearing above 16 kHz largely disappears in one’s twenties, the empirical basis for the mosquito.
Related
- Age-related hearing loss affects high frequencies most and strikes men more than women (similarity 0.82)
- Human audible frequency range narrows dramatically with age (similarity 0.81)
- An 16.8 kHz sine wave is used commercially as a teen deterrent (similarity 0.80)
- Hearing sensitivity degrades with age and is lower in early childhood (similarity 0.80)
- Age-related presbycusis limits high-frequency hearing by the mid-twenties (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Age-related presbycusis limits high-frequency hearing by the mid-twenties
#corroborates(0.95) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2573 - The audible harmonic count of a note depends on hearing’s 16 kHz upper limit
#expands(0.80) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 799