I thought this sounded like BS, so I looked a bit more closely into ear physiology.
You obviously need some kind of energy source (either an active amplifier or a noisy pump source) to have resonances that can be recorded. What would that be for tinnitus? Blood flow noise?
Well it turns out that there is thought to be active amplification in mammalian ears, via the outer hair cells. They have some sort of active motor protein setup that is thought to physically amplify incoming sounds. So you can get a self-sustaining resonance that way. A healthy ear will emit sounds from spurious or resonant activation of these motor proteins.
Apparently this is thought to cause a minority of cases of tinnitus.
I looked into if I could buy probe microphones to test my own ears. Looks like Etymotic sells a couple in the $1500 range (as of the mid-90s), presumably more expensive now. Couldn't find any good deals on used lab-grade probe microphones online.
You obviously need some kind of energy source (either an active amplifier or a noisy pump source) to have resonances that can be recorded. What would that be for tinnitus? Blood flow noise?
Well it turns out that there is thought to be active amplification in mammalian ears, via the outer hair cells. They have some sort of active motor protein setup that is thought to physically amplify incoming sounds. So you can get a self-sustaining resonance that way. A healthy ear will emit sounds from spurious or resonant activation of these motor proteins.
Apparently this is thought to cause a minority of cases of tinnitus.
I looked into if I could buy probe microphones to test my own ears. Looks like Etymotic sells a couple in the $1500 range (as of the mid-90s), presumably more expensive now. Couldn't find any good deals on used lab-grade probe microphones online.