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Aural Rumbling On Demand (Tensor Tympani Contraction)

Can You Contract Your Tensor Tympani & 'Hear' A Rumbling Sound?

  • Yes, I Can

    Votes: 14 70.0%

  • No, I Can't

    Votes: 6 30.0%
  • Total voters
    20
EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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Like the ability to roll one's tongue, here's another little physiological quirk that's surprising for not being universal among us humans - generating a perceived thundering or rumbling by contracting the tensor tympani. This is a small muscle in the middle ear.

I can do it, I've known I can do it since I was a little kid, and I'm amazed to learn I may be in the minority ...
Some People Can Make a Roaring Sound in Their Ears Just by Tensing a Muscle

Although we humans generally have control of our skeletal musculature, there's at least one we don't always have a handle on. In the middle ear sits the tensor tympani, and it seems most people are unable to contract it voluntarily.

Those that can contract their tensor tympani - a small muscle located above the auditory tube - are privy to a special skill: the action produces a low, thunder-like rumbling in their ears.

This is not a new discovery. Sound being produced by the voluntary contraction of this muscle was discussed on page 1,263 of physiologist Johannes Müller's 1842 text Elements of Physiology Volume 2.

But oftentimes, an experience that may seem normal to you is utterly bizarre to another person, and vice versa. There is, after all, much variation in the category encompassed by the word "human".

A tweet from Italian engineer Massimo, who runs a science Twitter account, has the internet rumbling once again, dividing people into the haves and have-nots - most of whom were previously unaware that the other side even exists. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/some-p...g-sound-in-your-ears-just-by-tensing-a-muscle
 
I can do it to, and out of a group of 12 at work only one other can.
 
I can do that. I didn't realise it was a thing people could or couldn't do. How interesting.
You'd imagine it'd have a genetic component? It makes me wonder whether my mother's recent issues she's been having with A Noise could conceivably be connected (like a noise in the environment that's intermittent and driving her mad at times, reminiscent of 'the hum' or goodness knows what - allegedly not tinnitus though as she's been to a specialist)
 
Eponastill said:
... It makes me wonder whether my mother's recent issues she's been having with A Noise could conceivably be connected (like a noise in the environment that's intermittent and driving her mad at times, reminiscent of 'the hum' or goodness knows what - allegedly not tinnitus though as she's been to a specialist)
Click to expand...

It's quite possible ... Consider this, from the full article cited above:

It can also be alarming if you don't know what's happening. A 2013 case report describes a 27-year-old man who went to his doctor "complaining of voluntarily evoked bilateral tinnitus", only to find he was able to voluntarily contract both tensor tympani muscles, and the roaring noise was nothing to be concerned about.
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I posted this story. If many, if not most, people can unknowingly generate the perception of a rumbling / thundering sound it could lead to assuming the inexplicable sound originated from some mysterious / Fortean source.
 
@EnolaGaia - could you put a poll at the top? Or create a new one with poll and append lolol

Not exactly scientific but it would give us a proportion of respondents.

I think that people not sure if they can do it are unlikely to be able to do it ;)
 
Stillill said:
But it’s difficult or impossible to describe to somebody how you do it.
Click to expand...

True ...

For me the most direct way to trigger the rumbling feels like tensing my temples, which co-occurs if I tense or clench my forehead.

A really big (gaping) yawn will trigger it as well, but to a milder degree.
 
I was going to say that it happens when I scrunch my face up (wrinkling my nose). But actually I can do it without scrunching. And I can scrunch without the noise. It just seems to go along with scrunching, for some reason. (Yep this is hard to explain).

In the article they suggest giving a really big yawn. But I wonder if that's the same sort of thing. It has to be a 'real yawn'!
 
EnolaGaia said:
True ...

For me the most direct way to trigger the rumbling feels like tensing my temples, which co-occurs if I tense or clench my forehead.

A really big (gaping) yawn will trigger it as well, but to a milder degree.
Click to expand...
I don’t get it with the tensing temples method but I do with a yawn. The only way I can begin to describe the method is like I’m trying to force air out of my ears.
 
I can do it without moving anything BUT, as @Eponastill says, scrunching the nose seems to fit!
 
kamalktk said:
I can do it. Assumed everyone could. I can also click my Eustachian tubes, which is mentioned at the bottom of the article.
Click to expand...
Yep, I can do all of that too.
 
Tin said:
I'd never heard of this before. I have severe tinnitus so I'm not sure I'd be able to hear it anyway.
Click to expand...

I have tinnitus too. :group: bloody thing!

The TTC noise is right in your head though. I can here quiet external noise /and/ this weird thing at the same time.
 
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Stillill said:
But it’s difficult or impossible to describe to somebody how you do it.
Click to expand...


It is isn't it? Probably why I've never mentioned it to anyone, ever. I wonder if it's somehow linked to something else I find difficult to describe.

Sometimes, about an hour after falling asleep at night, I get a noise in my head which seems to come from the same general area as the TTC.
It sounds like tinnitus, coming on in a wave from quiet to very loud and each wave lasts only a second or two but it's enough to rouse me from a deep sleep to almost awake. This repeats itself as I'm unable to fully wake up, until I finally have to literally sit up and give my head a shake, wait a few moments and then change my position in bed. I can sometimes be lying there for 5 or 10 minutes listening to this before I wake up.

This is not what I term 'sleep paralysis', I know what that's like, more of a dream. This feels like an actual physical thing happening and is something I associate with stress and anxiety. In fact, it's almost never happened since I started taking probiotics, which I believe have altered my mood for the better.
I also noticed a reduction in tinnitus, which at bedtime after a stressful day could seem deafening. I can still do the 'rumbling thunder' sound mentioned in the OP at will though.
 
David Plankton said:
It is isn't it? Probably why I've never mentioned it to anyone, ever. I wonder if it's somehow linked to something else I find difficult to describe.

Sometimes, about an hour after falling asleep at night, I get a noise in my head which seems to come from the same general area as the TTC.
It sounds like tinnitus, coming on in a wave from quiet to very loud and each wave lasts only a second or two but it's enough to rouse me from a deep sleep to almost awake. This repeats itself as I'm unable to fully wake up, until I finally have to literally sit up and give my head a shake, wait a few moments and then change my position in bed. I can sometimes be lying there for 5 or 10 minutes listening to this before I wake up.

This is not what I term 'sleep paralysis', I know what that's like, more of a dream. This feels like an actual physical thing happening and is something I associate with stress and anxiety. In fact, it's almost never happened since I started taking probiotics, which I believe have altered my mood for the better.
I also noticed a reduction in tinnitus, which at bedtime after a stressful day could seem deafening. I can still do the 'rumbling thunder' sound mentioned in the OP at will though.
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you mean about the wave of sound. If I leave it too long after it starts I will always end up having an episode of sleep paralysis. I have too literally sit up before it’s too late to stop it developing into sleep paralysis. I do suffer from stress and anxiety so maybe it’s related.
 
Well, I just put this business to my OH, hoping he wasn't going to think I was mad. Fortunately, he's in the 'rumbling noise in ears at will' camp too, and made the observation that it's like forcing pressure out of your ears.

But apparently he can also do the clicking ears thing on demand too (which I can't) - and his tip for that was that it was like if a deprived type like myself holds their nose and tries to blow - your ears make a little squeaky click.

Don't mention it, just sharing these really important titbits of information for the good of humankind.
 
OOOOH!

*short pause*

Yep, I'm a Can Breath and Make Internal Roaring Noises At the Same Time person.
 
I noticed that I could do it long ago. As a child, I wished that I could wiggle my ears since my brother could. Alas, when I used those muscles, no wiggle, just that low rumble.
 
I can do it. I used to do it to prevent my ears popping when taking off on 'planes and it usually worked (I went through a phase of doing that quite a lot).
 
I can do the rumbling in the ears and also a clicking sound.
Sometimes the rumbling is triggered spontaneously when something really grosses me out, such as if I have to dispose of a random decapitated creature that my cat has decided to gift me.
 
I can create the rumbling sound. Easier to to by wrinkling my forehead or clenching my jaw, but after reading this, I can manage it quite easily by gently tensing the muscles in my temples. I can't make the clicking sound though, no matter how much I try.
 
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