Hi Ric, > When I was a kid I guess around 8 or 9 I vaguely remember a > doctor office visit where the Dr. struck a large tuning fork and > held it on my head. He asked me which ear I heard it in and > touched it in several places. (I heard it in both ears) > I wonder what he was testing for? There was also a scotch > tape test to be done at home but we won't go there now. > > My wife wonders about my credibility on this one. Did anyone > else ever have this test? We all had the hammer to the knee. If > I remember he used that hammer to sound the fork. > > ---ric aka ---rm Seriously.... Someone else got it partially right. The doc was testing your hearing, but he was concerned with the integrity of your inner ear, apart from the rest of the ear. He wanted to know what sort of shape the L and R basilar membranes were in (i.e. which have the sensory "hair cells" where the nerve impulses in your ear begin). The bone conductance route bypasses the ear canal and middle ear, where people might also have problems (e.g. ear wax, foreign objects, middle ear infection, fused middle ear bones). This would be similar to testing your sense of touch by bypassing the callus you may or may not have on your fingertip. Oh, by moving the tuning fork back and forth, he was able to compare sensitivity between ears (i.e. determining the point at which the sound was "equal" between the ears). The scotch tape test might have been a repetition of the test with higher frequency stimuli. Dunno... I haven't heard of that one. (We lose higher frequency sensitivity first, since that area of the basilar membrane suffers all of the abuse from all frequencies, including the low ones.) Anyway, you can tell your wife you remember correctly. Peace, Sarah
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