Posts Tagged ‘Karen McComb’
Just One Way That Your Cat Controls You
Karen McComb 
is the lead author of a cat vocalization study performed at the University of Sussex. She got the idea of studying cat purrs while listening to her own cat purr, and noticing that cats seem to have a variety of purrs.
The University of Sussex study examined the acoustic structure of recorded cat purrs. The researchers decided that all purrs are not the same; some contain an “embedded, high-pitched cry.” Ten different cats purring were recorded and all human listeners in the study identified ‘solicitation purring’ sounds.
McComb explained that what cats seem to be doing for the special purr “is producing the low fundamental frequency and its harmonics by muscular activation” (that has been associated with typical purring) “but also voicing a cry, probably with the inner edges of the vocal folds, which is then superimposed on the sound’s frequency spectrum.”
Virtually all listeners, whether or not they owned a cat themselves, identified the solicitation purring sounds as being more urgent than others.
They believe that human sensitivity to this type of purring may be innate in humans, drawing from a primal drive to respond to crying babies. And you thought it was just purring…
