using your inside voice
Vibes, vibin’, good vibrations. All slang for that perfect feeling when everything is going your way. It’s an idea that permeates pop culture and is something that just about everybody can identify with. But why is that? And why does it so often seem to go hand in hand with music? If you’ve had a chance to listen to our most recent episode of Soundboard (and if you haven’t you can find it here) you might have an idea of where I’m going with this. I think in large part the reason why the idea of “good vibes” is so universal is because we experience sound itself as a series of vibrations travelling through both the air and through ourselves. The auditory system is able to accomplish this thanks to a small, spiral shaped bone in your ear called the cochlea.
The cochlea takes the vibrations of soundwaves travelling through the air and transduces them into electrical impulses which can then be registered by your brain as the sounds we hear everyday. The fact that our bodies can do all of this almost instantaneously is, to me at least, absolutely incredible. We’re talking about hundreds upon hundreds of external sounds being processed throughout a day. But what about internal sounds? I mentioned in our Soundboard episode that you can try a little trick to hear “your'' voice by plugging your ears and talking normally. That’s a quick and easy way to try and get the idea, but think back to any concerts you’ve been to, and I bet you’ve really felt those vibrations. It’s usually overpowered by the sound you hear externally, but those vibrations are going into your ears, just as much as they are going through you.
Thanks to advances in technology, there are actually headphones that are able to harness the vibrations of soundwaves and channel them so acutely to your cochlea that you can hear stereo audio without anything in your ears. This is called bone conduction. Now, one thought that I had while researching this topic was, “if this is possible can’t we use this principle to help anyone with hearing problems?” The answer is definitely yes, but it’s also more complicated than that because your ears and your auditory system still do a lot of heavy lifting. If we take the example of bone conduction headphones, the audio being played is usually in the form of a song or podcast whose vibrations can be very specifically channeled through bone to the cochlea. What it can’t do is take in all of the sounds from the outside world, and then process and focus them in the same way. However, there is a device that can take in all of the external sounds you would hear on a daily basis.
The cochlea takes the vibrations of soundwaves travelling through the air and transduces them into electrical impulses which can then be registered by your brain
Cochlear implants essentially bypass a large portion of your auditory system by implanting electrodes into the cochlea which are tied to a sound processor typically affixed behind the ear. The processor takes in all of the sounds from the outside and stimulates the cochlea so your brain can interpret those electrical impulses just like your auditory system. But it’s not perfect. The size of the devices limits the capability of the sound processor to accurately capture the sheer breadth of external sounds, and the vibrations that stimulate the cochlea aren’t exactly the same. So much so that most individuals who have gone through the procedure require training and therapy to interpret normal sounds because they are very different from what they might remember. Additionally, this is still a surgical procedure which has its own accompanying risks and it can cost between $30,000 and $50,000. That alone can be enough to deter someone with hearing problems severe enough to warrant a cochlear implant from opting in to the procedure. However, as time goes on and the technology becomes less expensive, it is my hope that more people with severe hearing loss can receive the help they need.
To me, it’s a wonder that our auditory system can capture and interpret something as seemingly simple as vibrations and that those vibrations can take the form of some of our most beloved experiences. Where would we be without music or without the ability to communicate with one another through speech? Would we as a society be even remotely the same? So next time you’re getting good vibes from your favorite song and you’re really feeling it...you actually are.
Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-my-voice-sound-different/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531483/