Unit 1 - Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is conduction? What is modified?
How sound travels (the pathway and modification of amplitude, frequency, and timing)
What is the normal pathway of conduction? What are some key points?
Air conduction (AC)
- Ear canal - Eardrum - ME bone chain - Inner Ear
* traveling wave -OC vibration
* hair bundle deflection (control transduction ion channel to generate receptor potential)
* OHC active force (loop back to IHCs - mech-electrical-mech-hyraulic)
What is outer ear resonance due to? What does a standing wave do?
Standing wave (provides amplification by resonance - an object/system vibrates most easily at its natural frequency, response to an input signal)
Equation for resonance
f =n* c /( 4 * L)
- L = 2.6 cm, the length of tube, sealed at one end
- c = 33,100 cm /sec, sound speed in air
- n= positive integer number
- f = 33,100/10.4 = 3186 Hz, when n=1
- Multiple resonances corresponding to n = 1, 2, 3…….
What is a standing wave generated by? What happens to amplitude and vibration?
- the insert and rebound sound wave
- amplitude is doubles and vibration appears to be standing (node = 0 vibration)
What is frequency response/transfer function?
how gain/phase changes with frequency
What is gain? What does gain vary across?
output/input (in ration or dB)
dB gain = 20log (pressure ratio) 10log (intensity ration)
The gain varies across frequency range of hearing (frequency response, how the system modifies the signal in frequency)
Explain the microphone gain picture
- Measurement for flange, sound pressure is compared between M2 and M1 (microphone)
- Larger contribution at canal for standing wave
- Flange effect is seen as the difference between M2 and M1 (M2-M1 = finding the gain of the flange)
Resonance measured in the external ear (what is the number, what is the largest contribution from)?
15dB around 3000Hz (largest contribution from the meatus)
What filter does the outer ear use?
bandpass filter
Explain the different filters
- bandpass: low and high pass
- low pass: everything below 3dB is left untouched (only low frequencies pass)
- high pass: cut off point is 3dB lower than the starting point of the frequency, everything aboce that is left untouched (only high frequencies pass)
- band reject
Age related changes with frequency response
we lose high frequency sounds as we age
3 dB stands for ____
50% reduction of intensity
What is the role of middle ears in land animals?
Impedance matching
What are the 3 middle ear mechanisms that provide fain for compensating impedance match? What is the mismatch between?
- area action, gain = 25dB
- lever action, gain = 2.5dB
- buckling action, gain = 6dB
30dB attenuation due to impedance mismatch of air and water
ME transfer function (freq, filter, shape)?
- bandpass
- peak around 1000Hz (1kHz)
- ME is broader (less of a peak, covers a wider range of frequency than OE transfer function)
Where does ME transfer function decline?
declines towards high frequencies (and low)
Why does the ME transfer function decline towards high frequency?
- Mass effect: experiment data by changing mass (increasing mass, reduce high frequency cutoff), makes high frequency sound more difficult to transfer
- less decline at high-frequency in more recent evaluations (suggesting error by equipment)
Why is there decline at low frequency in ME transfer function?
due to elastic feature (stiffness) from: TM stiffness, ME ligament tense, air pressure in ME
Explain the combination of external and middle ears
- ME frequency transfer function is broader, EE is narrower, put them together for a combination for a peak amplification around 3000 Hz and peak gain around 35 dB (EE 15 + ME 20)
- Most ME gain is around 20 dB
What is efficiency?
- the ratio of power between eardrum and oval window
- what is the difference from perfect (100% compensation)?
- 10log.65 = -1.87dB
- If ME works perfectly well, the sound that goes into the IE should have no attenuation (this is considered as 100%), however the ME does not really provide perfect transfer conduction.
- The best efficiency is only 35% at peak (but only less than 2 dB).
What proves that there is less decline in ME transfer function at the high frequencies?
- wider frequency range seen in later observations
- Hutten-Brink and Huddle (1994) and earlier studies showed lower cutoff at high frequency (calibration error?)
- See Puria et al (1997): suggesting much wider range (to high F) of ME response
- Attenuation towards high frequency is less (isn’t as big of a dip in the high frequency that we thought)
How does an AC abnormality impact hearing?
- If there is a big eardrum perforation (occurs through repeated otitis media)
o external ear - ME air cavity (not through bone chain) - inner ear (through both oval window and round window)
o Hearing loss up to 30 dB (still some AC) - If air pathway is blocked, AC is not working at all, larger attenuation is expected (e.g., aural atresia – developmental deformation of temporal bone, EE does not open at all, no canal, sound can only be delivered to IE through bone conduction): 50-60 dB (when relying on natural BC alone, no AC)
Bone conduction (natural vs. artificial)
The conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bone of the skull.
Natural BC (just sitting there, generally useless because there is such a huge air bone mismatch/impedance )
- Air to skull (air to solid)
- greater loss (50-60 dB) due to large impedance mismatch between air and bone
Artificial BC
- bone vibrator (placed onto the mastoid surface so vibration goes through skull to IE)
- Skull
- inner ear