Eyes as fenestrations to the ears: a novel mechanism for high-frequency and ultrasonic hearing.
Intense airborne ultrasound has been associated with hearing loss, tinnitus, and various nonauditory subjective effects, such as headaches, dizziness, and fullness in the ear. Yet, when people detect ultrasonic components in music, ultrasound adds to the pleasantness of the perception and evokes changes in the brain as measured in electroencephalograms, behavior, and imaging. How does the airborne ultrasound get into the ear to create such polar-opposite human effects? Surprisingly, ultrasound passes first through the eyes; thus, the eye becomes but another window into the inner ear.
Lenhardt
Martin L
ML
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. 23298-0168, USA. lenhardt@hsc.vcu.edu
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D001489:Basilar Membrane / Q000503:physiopathology; D001844:Bone Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D007758:Ear, Inner / Q000503:physiopathology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005123:Eye / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000503:physiopathology; D014159:Transducers; D014465:Ultrasonics / Q000009:adverse effects