Source: Popular Science China

Reviewed by Tao Ning, Ph.D., Associate Professor, National Research Institute

In everyday life

I don’t know if you have found a strange phenomenon

It’s just covering your ears and listening to yourself

It’s louder than when you don’t cover your ears

What is the reason for this?

Let’s uncover the secret for you!

It turns out that the sound of covering your ears to hear yourself speak louder than when you do not cover your ears is because

Sound conducts differently

Let’s first understand how we hear ourselves.

When our voice is emitted, it is conducted through the air:

The outer ear→ middle ear→ inner ear (lymph vibrates), → spiral (completes the sensory process), → auditory nerve (produces nerve impulses), → auditory center→ cerebral cortex (integrates data, processes and processes), so that sound is heard.

If you cover your ears, you hear sounds through bone conduction:

Labyrinth of the skull →→ inner ear lymph → spiral→ auditory nerve → auditory center of the cerebral cortex.

In life, we hear that sound will pass

Air conduction and bone conduction

In both ways, there will be some external noise mixed in the air conduction, and the volume will be smaller, while

Covering the ears is only conducted through the bones, and there is no noise from the outside world, so the sound will be louder.