Bone conduction experiments in animals – evidence for a non-osseous mechanism

Bone conducted stimuli are used to differentiate between conductive and sensori-neural hearing loss. It has been thought that the main route for the transfer of vibratory energy from the point of application of the bone vibrator on the skull to the inner ear is completely osseous. An additional mechanism may play a prominent role. In rats, a bone vibrator was applied to the skull and also directly on the brain, after removing bone (a craniotomy), exposing the brain. Auditory nerve-brainstem evoked response (ABR) could be elicited not only with the vibrator on bone, but also with the vibrator directly on the brain. Similar results were obtained in guinea-pigs and fat sand rats. Noise masked this ABR. Extensive removal of skull bone did not alter the ABR to bone-conducted stimuli delivered to the exposed brain. Experimental elimination of the ossicular chain inertial mechanism and of the occlusion effect did not greatly alter the bone conduction response. A reduction in the fluid volume of the cranial cavity induced threshold elevations of the bone conducted ABR but not of the air conducted ABR. These findings can be interpreted as evidence that the ‘classical’ bone conduction mechanisms should be modified to include a major pathway for cochlear excitation which is non-osseous: when a bone vibrator is applied to the skull, the bone vibrations may induce audio-frequency sound pressures in the skull contents (brain and cerebro-spinal fluid) which are then communicated by fluid channels to the fluids of the inner ear.