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Re: sound pathways through human body

Some anecdotal information to help this along: A colleague of mine had a heart valve replaced a few years ago, and in a quiet setting (such as, I don't know, an audiometric test booth <g>), the casual observer can hear it "click", as can she. I forwarded this email to her and she did a few experiments. She observed that the click is louder when her ears are occluded, and refers to the occluded ear if she's occluding just one. So she must be hearing it by bone conduction as well as by air... I'll let the hearing scientists whack away at how that would occur though :). 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
Sarah Hargus Ferguson, Ph.D., CCC-A
Assistant Professor
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders 
University of Kansas 
Dole Center
1000 Sunnyside Ave., Room 3001 
Lawrence, KS  66045
office: (785)864-1116
Speech Acoustics and Perception Lab: (785)864-0610
http://www.ku.edu/~splh/Faculty/FergusonBio.html

-----Original Message-----
From: AUDITORY Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hervé Lissek
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 9:19 AM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: sound pathways through human body

I am facing a problem of sound perception, which I cannot answer with
accuracy: when a little sound source in the audible range (~1kHz) is located inside a human body, within the fat cells (for example, a buzzer fixed on a medical device) which of the acoustic pathway from the transducer to the inner ear is occurring ? 
The sound source is, or should be, implanted inside the abdomen, elastically fixed to the nearest bones (ie the lowest part of the spinal column, maybe even the pelvis). The question is: is sound (@ 1kHz) transmitted:
- through bones
- through fluid (fat, air, water ...) directly to the internal ears,
- through fluids, interface with air, and then external ears? If possible, could you provide me a reference list? Thanks in advance, best regards,

Dr. Hervé Lissek
Head of the acoustic group
EPFL STI ITOP LEMA
ELB 040 
Station 11
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
 
Tel: +41 21 693 46 30
Fax: +41 21 693 26 73
herve.lissek@xxxxxxx