• Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Ear muscle we thought humans didn’t use actually activates when people listen hard

Lekha said:
That some people hear better from a sound-emitting device doesn't mean that someone else hears that sound with your ears.
Click to expand...
Then why do most people agree on the Steinway sounding better? Do you have an explanation?
 
NTK said:
Then why do most people agree on the Steinway sounding better? Do you have an explanation?
Click to expand...
No.
We are talking about human ears, not about man made devices.
 
An interesting aspect of our hearing system and our brains is that if you don't see the speakers, you can forget where the music is coming from after a while, except that it seems to be coming from somewhere in front. This can be tested. I have two speakers about 2.5m in front of me, separated by about 2 meters from each other. I sit behind the monitor, so I don't see those speakers, and the music plays continuously. As I continue with my work, those unseen speakers become lost; only the music remains, and there's no distinct left or right speaker, just a room full of sound that seems to come from the front and above the top of the monitor, sometimes even further away from the wall behind those speakers.
 
¥€$ said:
Do people here actively use those tympanic membrane (eardrum) tightening muscles? Most become aware of them when they spasm and cause that fluttering sound in one ear, and wikipedia says that having voluntary control of these muscles may be rare. I doubt that, most people probably use them knowingly when they're in a car and someone else is about to slam a door shut. The effect of it is the same as with the muscle's original purpose - it tightens the eardrum to protect it from excess vibration, a loud sound or another sudden change of air pressure.
Click to expand...
There are different kind of muscles, the timpanic tensor is used involuntarily to increase or decrease sensitivity of the medium chamber of the ear.

In my professional field (physical rehabilitation medicine) is common to see patients suffering from tinnitus after cervical injuries, we believe that some reflexes from cervical muscles activates timpanic tensor and produce extra sensitivity and tinnitus. Other theories are developed to explain tinnitus in absence of cervical influence, and involving the muscle by stress or genetic facilitation pathways in the motor control of the tensor.

The article describes another extra-auricular muscles that potentially can move the ear but in vast majority of persons are inefficient. We have many other vestigial muscles, many of them in our foot toes
 

This is from a guy that can voluntary move the typmanic tensor.

Below is what is talked about here ?
 
cats have best ear movement and frequency range

54a9a536803b46c66d5e73dfef1ee7d2.gif
 
I think this makes a lot of sense. I’m a live sound engineer, and whenever I focus intently on listening to music, I always feel a specific sensation in my head—almost like certain muscles are being activated. After long hours of work, sometimes this feeling of intense concentration doesn’t go away immediately, and it can even give me a headache. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience.
 
Simon Rao said:
I think this makes a lot of sense. I’m a live sound engineer, and whenever I focus intently on listening to music, I always feel a specific sensation in my head—almost like certain muscles are being activated. After long hours of work, sometimes this feeling of intense concentration doesn’t go away immediately, and it can even give me a headache. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Click to expand...
May be the neck muscles that orient your head to the optimal position to listen, as it occurs in visual fatigue related headache (in this case extra ocular muscles are also involved).

If your listening levels are high, neck and facial muscles are also contracted in a sort of protective gesture (not really effective I suppose, but reflexes are often residual for predecessor species). Also high acoustic levels increase muscle tone, by alert mechanisms involving adrenaline liberation
 
Miguelón said:
If your listening levels are high, neck and facial muscles are also contracted in a sort of protective gesture (not really effective I suppose, but reflexes are often residual for predecessor species). Also high acoustic levels increase muscle tone, by alert mechanisms involving adrenaline liberation
Click to expand...
I guess that's especially true for music with big bass. In nature, any sound that is deep and loud comes from something big and dangerous. Our instincts "know" that. Instinct tells us there's danger, our higher brain functions say we're safe. That creates tension and excitement, which many people happen to enjoy very much.
 
Ropeburn said:
I guess that's especially true for music with big bass. In nature, any sound that is deep and loud comes from something big and dangerous. Our instincts "know" that. Instinct tells us there's danger, our higher brain functions say we're safe. That creates tension and excitement, which many people happen to enjoy very much.
Click to expand...
Yep, I’m thinking in Tyrannosaurus steps in Jurassic Park :)
 
Ropeburn said:
I guess that's especially true for music with big bass. In nature, any sound that is deep and loud comes from something big and dangerous. Our instincts "know" that. Instinct tells us there's danger, our higher brain functions say we're safe. That creates tension and excitement, which many people happen to enjoy very much.
Click to expand...
In the clinic I work, our magnetic resonance is quite old and produces a lot of noise, I measured 70-75 dB all day.

When I go out I feel some bizarre tension also in head, and the first musical listenings once arrived at home sound strange (like irritant): I don’t know if can be related to your experience
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom