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yawning and music pitch?


prodj101

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What your feeling and hearing is much like holding your hands over your ears. The temporary feeling of the ear canal being closed as you Yawn.

BTW you Yawn, because you need oxygen. Most commonly late at night when your tired or when you eat a very large meal and your stomach is working overtime trying to digest your feast-gasm...LOL

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On 12/23/2002 10:33:12 AM IndyKlipschFan wrote:

BTW you Yawn, because you need oxygen.

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When my daughter was very young, they learned about this in school. Her translation for the reason for yawning was that she "needed more air in her head." We'll just ignore the fact that she is also a blond...

DD

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This makes some sense.

Please excuse if I mangle some spelling, and physiology.

As you might know, the outer ear is like a horn. Big end out the outside.

Then, inside is the eardrum or timpanic membrane. Sort of like the diaphragm of a microphone. Then in the middle ear, on the inner side of the ear drum, we have the small bones which transmit sound to the inner ear. That is a fluid filled coil in which the nerve endings sit. It seems like each nerve ending responds to a specific frequency. Yup, physically, we've got little sprectrum analyzers in our ears. (Off subject.)

The system works because "sound" causes a pressure increase, up and down, on the outside of the drum, and the pressure on the inside is "average". SPL or sound pressure level, is technically correct.

There is a potential problem here. One side of the eardrum is at atmospheric pressure. But atmospheric pressure changes. Often because of weather; barometric pressure. So it would be nice if there was a small tube connected to the back side of the ear drum which is a bit leaky, or at least leaks in the right circumstances. That is so the average pressure on either side of the ear drum is equalize.

Mr. Eustaious, found that little tube in our head. (He must have been cutting up dead bodies; questioable conduct in the time.) One end is open to the middle ear. The other to someplace in the back of the mouth. It became known as the Eustacian tube.

Some people can activate muscles which open up the tube, on command. Perhaps it like being able to do the Vulcan finger split greeting. It can be learned. Others accomplish the same by yawning, chewing, or swallowing.

So, if you're in an airplane which decends, the pressure on the outer surface of the ear drum increases. It is painful if the tube is not open to let pressure in to the middle ear. That is why the flight crew suggests yawning or chewing gum. If you have a head cold, the tube plugs up.

But going back to the question. When you open up the Eustian tube, it is normalizing pressure on the inner side of the ear drum and making the system work normally. If things are messed up before hand, you might well gain audio acuity. You might also temporaraly hear the tension in the muscles if you tense your jaw, etc.

I'm at a bit of a loss to explain temorary lack of bass. It might be that when the tube is open, you're getting the bass pressure signal at both sides of the ear drum. Then there is no relative pressure difference. But when you stop, the tube goes back to closed or leaky. Then you're back to "normal".

Gil

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i actually can like triple or more the sensitivity of my hearing by doing something that i can not really explain. but any thing is SOOO easily heard this way that even talking to myself can hurt my ears! what am i doing and how am i doing it? i have alwayswondered. it also changes how people hear my voice i found out.

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