4 ms·

> Does the mechanism eventually wear out? I hope not, because I have been able to control the muscle voluntarily and it is still works after almost four decade

> Does the mechanism eventually wear out? I hope not, because I have been able to control the muscle voluntarily and it is still works after almost four decades. It doesn't go off by itself all the time though. It's more for sudden loud noise, I don't think it works at all for sustained loud noises.

MrEldritch 7y ago
>I hope not, because I have been able to control the muscle voluntarily and it is still works after almost four decades. Oh, is that how the brain rumblies thingy works? Huh, I never realized most people couldn't do that.
- tmacro 7y ago
  I realized it was rare, but I've never been able to explain what I'm doing to other people. Now I finally know!
  - nsxwolf 7y ago
    Whoah! I thought everyone could do this!
- xamuel 7y ago
  There's a subreddit for this ability: https://old.reddit.com/r/earrumblersassemble/ https://old.reddit.com/r/earrumblersassemble/
taneq 7y ago
> It's more for sudden loud noise, I don't think it works at all for sustained loud noises. Yeah, it’s for when your brain thinks there might be a loud noise. I, too, was surprised when I found out that being able to deliberately tense it wasn’t ‘normal’.
- hunter2_ 7y ago
  It's not normal? Not sure about that.
  - taneq 7y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle#Voluntary_control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle#Voluntar... "Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear." (Emphasis mine.)
    - hunter2_ 7y ago
      "Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear. The rumbling sound can also be heard when the neck or jaw muscles are highly tensed as when yawning deeply." That is: there are 2 methods. The first method only "some...can" and the second method "[all people] can". The second method seems to be exactly what I voluntarily do; unfortunately the second method's description omits mention of voluntariness ("as when" means that yawning is not mandatory) though. Thus, the "all people" method and doing it voluntarily might overlap much of the time. Aside: I also have a hardly-traumatic "ear popping" (I say it that way because pressure-caused popping is called barotrauma) as a very early precursor to my voluntary rumbling. I wonder how typical that is...
adrianN 7y ago
I wonder whether deliberate ear-rumbling trains the muscle sufficiently to improve the protection.

MrEldritch 7y ago

>I hope not, because I have been able to control the muscle voluntarily and it is still works after almost four decades. Oh, is that how the brain rumblies thingy works? Huh, I never realized most people couldn't do that.

tmacro 7y ago
I realized it was rare, but I've never been able to explain what I'm doing to other people. Now I finally know!
- nsxwolf 7y ago
  Whoah! I thought everyone could do this!
xamuel 7y ago
There's a subreddit for this ability: https://old.reddit.com/r/earrumblersassemble/ https://old.reddit.com/r/earrumblersassemble/

taneq 7y ago

> It's more for sudden loud noise, I don't think it works at all for sustained loud noises. Yeah, it’s for when your brain thinks there might be a loud noise. I, too, was surprised when I found out that being able to deliberately tense it wasn’t ‘normal’.

hunter2_ 7y ago
It's not normal? Not sure about that.
- taneq 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle#Voluntary_control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor_tympani_muscle#Voluntar... "Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear." (Emphasis mine.)
  - hunter2_ 7y ago
    "Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear. The rumbling sound can also be heard when the neck or jaw muscles are highly tensed as when yawning deeply." That is: there are 2 methods. The first method only "some...can" and the second method "[all people] can". The second method seems to be exactly what I voluntarily do; unfortunately the second method's description omits mention of voluntariness ("as when" means that yawning is not mandatory) though. Thus, the "all people" method and doing it voluntarily might overlap much of the time. Aside: I also have a hardly-traumatic "ear popping" (I say it that way because pressure-caused popping is called barotrauma) as a very early precursor to my voluntary rumbling. I wonder how typical that is...

adrianN 7y ago

I wonder whether deliberate ear-rumbling trains the muscle sufficiently to improve the protection.