Assessment of inner ear bone vibrations during auditory stimulation by bone conduction and by soft tissue conduction
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Shai Chordekar
Abstract
Background: Soft tissue conduction (STC), a recently described mode of auditory stimulation elicited when the clinical bone vibrator is applied to skin sites over the head, neck, and thorax, complements air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC), elicited by the same vibrator. The study assessed skull bone vibrations induced during STC and BC stimulation.
Methods: The experiments were conducted on fat sand rats. Thresholds of auditory nerve brainstem evoked responses (ABRs) were recorded and compared to the lowest-intensity sound stimuli that elicited vibrations at the bony vestibule of the inner ear detected by a laser Doppler vibrometer.
Results: Vibrations were detected during BC but not during STC stimulation. ABR was recorded to both STC and to BC stimulation.
Conclusions: Low-intensity STC stimulation does not induce vibrations of the inner ear, showing that STC apparently does not involve mechanisms based on vibrations of bone.
We wish to thank Vocalzoom Systems, Israel, for allowing use of their laser Doppler vibrometer.
Conflict of interest statement
Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
References
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©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Israel Society for Auditory Research (ISAR): 2013 Annual Scientific Conference
- Mini Review
- Advances in genetic diagnostics for hereditary hearing loss
- Original Articles
- Mutual masking in the cochlea by bone conduction stimulation and by soft tissue conduction stimulation in an animal model
- Aging and speech perception: beyond hearing threshold and cognitive ability
- The development of speech-in-noise perception in Hebrew-speaking school-age children
- Temporal and non-temporal processes in the elderly
- Assessment of inner ear bone vibrations during auditory stimulation by bone conduction and by soft tissue conduction
- Short Communication
- Results of second cochlear implant with long inter-implant delay
- Congress Abstracts
- Abstracts*): Israel Society for Auditory Research (ISAR) 2013 Annual Scientific Conference
