Bone conduction experiments in humans – a fluid pathway from bone to ear

Sohmer, Haim; Freeman, Sharon; Geal-Dor, Miriam; Adelman, Cahtia; Savion, Igal

doi:10.1016/s0378-5955(00)00099-x

Cited by 161 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In an adult, the skull is a large rigid structure with fused sutures which results in very little interaural attenuation for boneconduction signals, i.e., when a stimulus is presented to one mastoid, both cochleae are stimulated. In an infant, the skull is small with membranous unfused sutures (Anson & Donaldson, 1981;Eby & Nadol, 1986) which have different energy transmission properties; Sohmer et al (2000) showed that acceleration of vibratory energy across the fontanelle is 14 dB less than across the temporal bone. The structure of the infant skull results in more interaural attenuation for bone-conduction stimuli compared with an adult skull, i.e., when a stimulus is presented to one mastoid, the signal is much more intense at the cochlea on the same side as the bone oscillator.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normal Ipsilateral/Contralateral Asymmetries in Infant Multiple Auditory Steady-State Responses to Air- and Bone-Conduction Stimuli

Small

Stapells

2008

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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Objectives: Two-channel recordings of infants' airand bone-conduction auditory brainstem responses to brief tones show ipsilateral and contralateral (to the stimulated ear) asymmetries which may be used to isolate which cochlea is the primary contributor to the response. The objective of this study was to determine whether similar ipsilateral/contralateral asymmetries are also present in the air-and boneconduction "brainstem" (77 to 101 Hz) auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) of infants.Design: Two-channel ASSRs were recorded in infants (2 to 11 mo) and adults (18 to 40 yr) with normal hearing. Multiple stimuli (carrier frequencies: 500 to 4000 Hz; amplitude/frequency modulated) were presented using a B-71 oscillator on the temporal bone or an ER3-A insert earphone. Bone-conduction ASSR amplitudes, phase delays, and thresholds were obtained for the electroencephalographic (EEG) channels ipsilateral and contralateral to the oscillator temporal-bone placement. Bone-conduction ASSRs were also obtained to the stimulus presented to the opposite temporal bone (at 40 dB HL only). Airconduction ASSR amplitudes and phase delays were obtained at 60 dB HL in each ear for the EEG channels ipsilateral and contralateral to the transducer.Results: Infants showed more ipsilateral/contralateral asymmetries in both air-and bone-conduction ASSRs compared with adults. Mean bone-conduction ASSR thresholds in infants were 13 to 15 dB higher (i.e., poorer) in the contralateral EEG channel compared with the ipsilateral EEG channel for 500 to 4000 Hz. In adults, there were no large differences (i.e., within 1 dB) between ipsilateral and contralateral ASSR thresholds. Based on ipsilateral/ contralateral threshold differences in infants, interaural attenuation for bone-conducted stimuli was estimated to be at least 10 to 30 dB for most infants. In contrast, most adults showed little interaural attenuation for bone-conducted stimuli.ASSR amplitudes are larger and phase delays are shorter in the ipsilateral EEG channel. For infants, the difference in air-conduction ASSR amplitude between EEG channels was twice that observed for adults. Infants also had greater ASSR amplitude differences between EEG channels for bone-conduction stimuli compared with adults, but the difference was less than that seen for air-conduction stimuli. For air-conduction stimuli, infants had significantly longer phase delays in the contralateral EEG channel compared with the ipsilateral EEG channel. Adults showed no significant differences in air-conduction ASSR phase delay between EEG channels. For bone-conduction stimuli, both infants and adults had significantly longer phase delays in the contralateral EEG channel compared with the ipsilateral EEG channel; the differences in ASSR phase delays between EEG channels were much smaller in infants compared with adults and fewer adults had absent responses in the contralateral EEG channels compared with infants (12% versus 34%). When the transducers were switched to the opposite ear/mastoid, the infant and adult ipsi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normal Ipsilateral/Contralateral Asymmetries in Infant Multiple Auditory Steady-State Responses to Air- and Bone-Conduction Stimuli

Small

Stapells

2008

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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“…This pathway is often experimentally investigated by a direct excitation of the soft tissues/brain (Sohmer et al, 2000), but is here modeled as a transmission via the skull bone (pathway 3A) and then a transmission via the VA to the inner ear (pathway 3B). The rationale for this is explained in detail below.…”

Section: Ear Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intracranial sound pressure has been argued to be important for BC hearing in the human, at least when the stimulation is at the soft tissues that connect to the cranial cavity as the eye or direct application of the transducer to the dura (Ito et al, 2011;Sohmer et al, 2000).…”

Section: Relative Importance Of the Five Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model predictions for bone conduction perception in the human

Stenfelt

2016

Hearing Research

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Five different pathways are often suggested as important for bone conducted (BC) sound: (1) sound pressure in the ear canal, (2) inertia of the middle ear ossicles, (3) inertia of the inner ear fluid, (4) compression of the inner ear space, and (5) pressure transmission from the skull interior. The relative importance of these pathways was investigated with an acousticimpedance model of the inner ear. The model incorporated data of BC generated ear canal sound pressure, middle ear ossicle motion, cochlear promontory vibration, and intracranial sound pressure. With BC stimulation at the mastoid, the inner ear inertia dominated the excitation of the cochlea but inner ear compression and middle ear inertia were within 10 dB for almost the entire frequency range of 0.1 to 10 kHz. Ear canal sound pressure gave little contribution at the low and high frequencies, but was around 15 dB below the total contribution at the mid frequencies. Intracranial sound pressure gave responses similar to the others at low frequencies, but decreased with frequency to a level of 55 dB below the total contribution at 10 kHz. When the BC inner ear model was evaluated against AC stimulation at threshold levels, the results were close up to approximately 4 kHz but deviated significantly at higher frequencies. 3 Highlights• A model for BC simulates the contribution from 5 components.• The inner ear compression and inertia and middle ear inertia are most important.• The contribution from intracranial sound pressure is insignificant at higher frequencies.• The model provides similar BM excitation for AC and BC threshold stimulation up to 4 kHz. KeywordsBone conduction, inner ear model, fluid inertia, inner ear compression, middle ear inertia

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“…16,17 However, Sohmer et al attributed lower hearing thresholds of stimulation at the temporal region containing thinner SB than stimulation at the thicker bone of the forehead. 23 According to the authors, vibrations can penetrate through to the cranial contents and excite the HR through the CSF pathway. Hoyer and Dorheide also postulated that the stimulated temporal bone surrounded by a frame-like structure may act almost like a membrane.…”

Section: Mechanical Properties Of the Skullmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hearing and stomatognathic system: Searching for a link

Baliński¹,

Morawska-Kochman²,

Bochnia³

2017

Dent. Med. Probl.

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Acoustic vibrations reach the inner ear fluids in 3 integral ways: through the air, bone, and soft tissue. The final stimulation of the hearing receptor is recognized as the result of various interactions appearing between them. Air conduction is best described as the most efficient mode of auditory stimulation. Soft tissue and bone conduction (including dentaural hearing), being frequently underestimated in the complicated process of hearing, are still less examined. Clinical observations prove that dental health may have a direct influence on hearing. Additionally, hearing improvement after dental treatment is of a permanent nature.This review presents a hypothesis and supporting literature review that dental disorders may contribute to disturbances in the excitation and/or the transmission of vibrations through the bone to the hearing receptor. Dissociation in the relationship between stimuli reaching the cochlea simultaneously in 3 modes may have a negative impact on hearing acuity.

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Bone conduction experiments in humans – a fluid pathway from bone to ear

Cited by 161 publications

References 14 publications

Normal Ipsilateral/Contralateral Asymmetries in Infant Multiple Auditory Steady-State Responses to Air- and Bone-Conduction Stimuli

Normal Ipsilateral/Contralateral Asymmetries in Infant Multiple Auditory Steady-State Responses to Air- and Bone-Conduction Stimuli

Model predictions for bone conduction perception in the human

Hearing and stomatognathic system: Searching for a link

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