Don: Say something, Yael. Say whatever you want, but talk directly into my right ear.

Y: You're a nut.

D: Okay. Now say the same thing in my left ear.

Y: Sure thing. You're still a nut. Now what on earth is this about?

D: Hold up. Now sing something in my right ear.

Y: Forget it. I'm doing no such thing until you tell me what's going on.

D: I'm testing out the differences in how my right and left ears process sound. They don't process sound in the same way, you know.

Y: Are you sure about that? The left hemisphere of the brain dominates over the right in processing different sounds. I know that. Specifically, the left hemisphere dominates in processing rapidly changing sounds such as in speech, and the right hemisphere dominates in processing prolonged tones such as in music, but I didn't think that had anything to do with how our ears function. Don't they just deliver the signals to the brain, where all the processing happens?

D: That's what scientists used to think. But now they know that the processing of sound actually begins in our ears, before sound reaches the brain. And because the right ear connects to the brain's left hemisphere, it's the dominant ear for processing rapidly changing sounds, and vice versa, the left ear dominates in processing prolonged tones.

Y: Wow. This could mean some significant changes in the design of hearing devices.

D: That's a possibility, but only time will tell what the real implications for this finding are.