The Complex Dance of Bone Conduction Hearing

Have you ever wondered why some people can hear through their bones? This fascinating phenomenon is called bone conduction (BC) hearing. Scientists used a special model of the human head to study how the direction and timing of forces impact this unique way of hearing. They created various force directions for one side of the head, treating it like a compass with 16 different directions. This was done by mixing eight directions on a flat plane with two tilt angles based on the usual force direction. The results showed that while the force strength didn’t vary by much, the promontory - a small bone in the ear - had different reactions between 1 to 3 kHz.Then, they played around with force timing on both sides of the head. They had forces that were in sync, 90° out of sync, and completely opposite (180°). This helped them see how forces interact and affect the ear's membranes. These experiments gave scientists new insights into how bone conduction hearing works. It’s like a complex dance where the force direction and timing play a huge role!