# General Topics > General Discussion & News > Press / News Items > Amphibian News Feeds >  Singing frog leads to insights into human hearing

## Frog News

*Mongabay News (California, USA) August 3rd, 2011 02:30 PM: Singing frog leads to insights into human hearing*

New  understanding of how female tungara frogs sort out the din of multiple  males singing may lead to insights into human hearing, according to a  new study in _Nature Communications_. 

"An important component of successful communication is being able to  tell which sender among many is sending the signal," explains  neuroscientist Hamilton Farris with Louisiana State University (LSU) in a  press release. "In auditory neuroscience it's called the 'cocktail  party problem.'" 

Female tungara frogs have to deal with cocktail party of their own, only  this party is all male. Male tungaras produce complex songs to lure  females, but make life difficult for females by overlapping songs.  Females have to overcome the noise if they are to select a mate. The  study found that females sort out males' song much in the same way as  humans determine a single voice from a din: they group together sounds  that are most similar. 

"Thus, in noisy, complicated environments, the cognitive solution is not  based on absolute stimulus rules, but one which compares all the sounds  and then deduces their sources," concludes Farris. "Based on our  research, we now have a better understanding of how the acoustic cues  are used to solve the problem, an understanding that will guide research  advances to solve communication problems associated with hearing  deficits and disorders of attention." 

This is not the only contribution tungara frogs have brought to human  society. A study last year found that components of tungara frogs' foam  nests could be used to produce biofuels.  

Tungara frogs (_Engystomops pustulosus_) are found throughout  Central America and in Venezuela and Colombia. They are listed as Least  Concern by the IUCN Red List and the population is believed to be  stable.   

*Full Article*

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