Can You Hear Without Ears?Can you smell without a nose? (Christopher Beam - Slate)

March 23, 2007 12:29 AM

Copyright Slate

March 21, 2007, at 6:47 PM ET

Illustration by Robert Neubecker. Click image to expand.On Saturday, Taliban guerrillas punished a group of Afghan truck drivers suspected of collaborating with U.S-led troops by chopping off their ears and noses. Can the victims still hear and smell?

Yes, but with more difficulty. The outer part of your ear, known as the pinna, funnels sound into your ear canal, like a megaphone in reverse. If someone cut it off, everything would sound quieter. (A wound that scabbed over would make the sound suppression more severe.) The pinnae also tell you where sounds are coming from: The ridges and grooves shape sound waves differently depending on where the sound originates. As a result, the brain learns to associate certain amplification patterns with certain directions. So, if you lost your ears, you might be able to tell what music you’re hearing, but not where the speakers are.

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