Subject: Re: New Scientist Question From: Eckard Blumschein <Eckard.Blumschein(at)E-TECHNIK.UNI-MAGDEBURG.DE> Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2001 16:45:25 +0100Many youngsters told me, they repetitiously experienced ringing ears for some hours or days after being exposed to loud music. So far, I imagined parts of their inner ears recovering, perhaps hair cells. Was this wrong? In discussions on the web, people with allegedly permanent tinnitus and even people with hum unanimously claimed external influence of actions similar to yawing. While tinnitus gets stronger during the stimulation, the hum tends to temporarily disappear, in particular immediately after their head was shaken. Doesn't even my flat hand has a similar effect like yawing when I am slowly covering my outer ear? I perceive a noise like from a seashell. Apparent pitch is getting continuously lower while the noise first gets gradually more salient until it eventually disappears at pretty low pitch. I appreciate Martin mentioning OAEs because he seems to be the first one who took the efferent system into account. Couldn't it be that the comparatively slow neural feedback plays a role in at least some of the additional phenomena I recalled above? Eckard Maybe, M165 is important.