Studies have found that the right ear is better geared toward interpreting speech, while the left ear is better designed at listening to music.
It has long been known that the different hemispheres of the brain handle different functions. Researchers have also extended this separation to hearing, and the types of sounds that each side of the brain – thus each ear – handles better. The findings have been that the right ear is generally better for interpreting speech, while the left ear is better for interpreting music.
A BBC news item from 2009 writes:
If you want to get someone to do something, ask them in their right ear, say scientists. Italian researchers found people were better at processing information when requests were made on that side in three separate tests.
They believe this is because the left side of the brain, which is known to be better at processing requests, deals with information from the right ear.
An earlier 2004 study on infants produced similar findings. It was discovered that the left ear provided extra amplification for music, while the right ear provided extra amplification for speech.
The researchers measured the babies OAE with two types of sound. First, they used rapid clicks and then sustained tones. They were surprised to find that the left ear provides extra amplification for tones like music, while the right ear provides extra amplification for rapid sounds timed like speech.
Sources:
- Left And Right Ears Not Created Equal As Newborns Process Sound, Finds UCLA/UA Research (Science Daily: September 10, 2004)
- Right ear is ‘better for hearing’ (BBC: June 24, 2009)
