What is the normal range of human hearing, and how does this range change with age? Why is it that younger people can hear high-pitched ringtones but older people cannot? How is this used to the advantage of younger people (e.g., when choosing cell phone ringtones)?
Under normal conditions, humans can detect sounds that can vibrate the eardrum by 1/10th of the length of an atom’s diameter. Humans generally hear sound beginning 15Hz and 20Hz extending up to 20000Hz. Children can perceive high-frequency sound, which translates to hearing sounds with a higher frequency than 20000Hz. However, the ability decreases with age and exposure to loud noises (Kalat, 2015).
Pitch perception is vital for one’s ability to understand and enjoy music. It involves the ability to differentiate between frequencies. As ages, the ability to differential frequencies decreases, and thus a person perceives fewer sound frequencies in music. Therefore, young people will have a wider of ringtones they can choose from, where older persons will only choose from limited frequencies of sounds they can hear.
What happens to the human eye as a person gets older? Consider what happens to the ability to perceive images at different distances when the lens becomes more rigid. How might a person with myopia benefit from changes with time?
As a person gets older, they susceptible to conditions that impair eye function, leading to progressive loss of vision if there are no appropriate interventions. The eye lens is vital when focusing on near or far objects by adjusting curvature to focus light on retinal. In a person with myopia, the light from distant objects converges before it gets to the retina. As the lens becomes rigid, it losses the ability to converge light; hence the converging occurs further towards the retina. The loss to converge light may be beneficial where convergence eventually occurs on the retina, and the individual gains ability to see far placed objects than they previously did.
How do the changes in smell and taste interact? Discuss the different types of taste. Are there any specific tastes that are relatively preserved with age? Do food preferences change with one’s ability to taste different things? How does this impact food choice?
Both taste and smell are chemical senses and are responsive to chemicals attached to receptors in the nose and tongue (Kalat, 2015). However, people recognize flavors largely using smell, which then aids in taste. As one chews, molecules are released and enter the nose, and one perceives the flavor/aroma of what they are eating. For this reason, in nasal congestion, taste becomes perverse due to the close association.
Traditionally, taste has been categorized into sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Umami has also been identified as a unique type of taste, first described in china (Kalat, 2015). As people age, they begin to lose taste buds and are less able to perceive taste. At the age of 50 years, taste buds lose their sensitivity, accompanied by low regeneration. When taste is impaired, eating habits change, either increasing or decreasing certain food intake due to preference to tastes. it can lead to weight gain or loss (Aging Care, 2020).