Chordekar Shai, Kishon-Rabin Liat, Kriksunov Leonid, Adelman Cahtia, Sohmer Haim
Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, 52621 Tel Hashomer, Israel.
Ozen Kashevet Hearing Clinic, 6 Ben Maimon Street, 92261 Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Communication Disorders, Hadassah Academic College, 37 Haneviim Street, P.O. Box 1114, 91010 Jerusalem, Israel.
Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:526708. doi: 10.1155/2015/526708. Epub 2015 Dec 6.
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 underwater hearing at low intensities is by AC or by osseous BC based on bone vibrations or by nonosseous BC (STC). Thresholds of normal hearing participants to bone vibrator stimulation with their forehead in air were recorded and again when forehead and bone vibrator were under water. A vibrometer detected vibrations of a dry human skull in all similar conditions (in air and under water) but not when water was the intermediary between the sound source and the skull forehead. Therefore, the intensities required to induce vibrations of the dry skull in water were significantly higher than the underwater hearing thresholds of the participants, under conditions when hearing by AC and osseous BC is not likely. The results support the hypothesis that hearing under water at low sound intensities may be attributed to nonosseous BC (STC).
人类在水下的听觉机制存在争议。一些人认为是通过空气传导（AC），另一些人认为是通过骨传导（BC），还有一些人认为是AC和BC的组合。应用于头部、颈部和胸部软组织部位的临床骨振动器也通过一种称为软组织传导（STC）或非骨性BC的机制引发听觉。本研究旨在基于骨振动或非骨性BC（STC）来测试低强度水下听觉是通过AC还是骨性BC。记录正常听力参与者在空气中用额头接受骨振动器刺激时的阈值，以及当额头和骨振动器都在水下时的阈值。在所有类似条件下（在空气中和水下），振动计都能检测到干燥人类头骨的振动，但当水处于声源和头骨额头之间时则不能。因此，在不太可能通过AC和骨性BC进行听觉的条件下，在水中使干燥头骨产生振动所需的强度明显高于参与者的水下听觉阈值。结果支持这样的假设，即低声强下的水下听觉可能归因于非骨性BC（STC）。
