The mechanism of human hearing under water is debated. Some suggest it is by air conduction (AC), others by bone conduction (BC), and others by a combination of AC and BC. A clinical bone vibrator applied to soft tissue sites on the head, neck, and thorax also elicits hearing by a mechanism called soft tissue conduction (STC) or nonosseous BC. The present study was designed to test whether unde...

Since Gavreau [1] reported that ultrasound could be perceived by bone conduction, controversial discussions have surrounded the concept of the auditory perception of ultrasound. Particular attention has been paid to its perception mechanism and to whether or not the profoundly hearingimpaired can detect ultrasound and discriminate ultrasound modulated by different speech sounds. Consideration i...

Participants reported the apparent lateralization of sounds as a function of interaural level differences, for stimuli delivered through bone-conduction headsets and standard headphones. The results showed that non-externalized spatial audio can be invoked with the bonephones, a device that provides the unique advantage of not covering the ears of the listener. Furthermore, the degree of latera...

Bone conduction describes the mechanisms that produce a hearing sensation when the skull bones are subjected to vibration. Multiple components and pathways have been suggested to contribute to total bone-conducted sound. They include outer-ear cartilaginous wall compression, middle-ear inertia, fluid inertia, cochlear capsule compression and soft-tissue conduction. Due to the complexity of the ...

Bone conduction is the process by which an acoustic signal vibrates the skull bones to stimulate the cochlea. Patients with pure conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss, and single sided deafness are sometimes poorly rehabilitated by conventional air conduction hearing aids due to for example the functionality losses in the middle ear. With these hearing impairments, the cochlea may functio...

An implantable bone conduction hearing device can be of significant benefit to carefully selected patients with noncorrectable conductive hearing losses. However, for some patients the device has significant limitations. This paper presents several practical issues that need to be considered before a decision is made regarding implant surgery. It is recommended that, whenever possible, air cond...

Despite advantages of using headphones, including privacy and portability, headphones have one essential drawback: they cover the ears of the listener, thus deteriorating detection and localization of ambient sounds. Bone-conduction headsets leave the ears uncovered, yet maintain portability and privacy. An initial step in establishing guidelines for using these “bonephones” is taken in the pre...

A hearing sensation arises when the elastic basilar membrane inside the cochlea vibrates. The basilar membrane is typically set into motion through airborne sound that displaces the middle ear and induces a pressure difference across the membrane. A second, alternative pathway exists, however: stimulation of the cochlear bone vibrates the basilar membrane as well. This pathway, referred to as b...

BACKGROUND Middle ear surgery aims to eliminate pathology from the middle ear, improve drainage and ventilation of the postoperative cavity, and reconstruct the tympanic membrane and ossicles. The aim of this work is to define the factors that affect ABG (air-bone gap) and bone conduction in the patients operated on due to chronic otitis media. MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective analysis of p...