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Updated: Feb 19, 2026

Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Ribbon Synapses at Specific Frequency Regions of the Mouse Cochlea
Published on: May 10, 2019
Why is auditory frequency weighting so important in regulation of underwater noise?
Jakob Tougaard1, Michael Dähne2
1Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark jat@bios.au.dk.
Abstract:
A key question related to regulating noise from pile driving, air guns, and sonars is how to take into account the hearing abilities of different animals by means of auditory frequency weighting. Recordings of pile driving sounds, both in the presence and absence of a bubble curtain, were evaluated against recent thresholds for temporary threshold shift (TTS) for harbor porpoises by means of four different weighting functions. The assessed effectivity, expressed as time until TTS, depended strongly on choice of weighting function: 2 orders of magnitude larger for an audiogram-weighted TTS criterion relative to an unweighted criterion, highlighting the importance of selecting the right frequency weighting.
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