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Does the adjustment cavitate the targeted joint? An investigation into the location of cavitation sounds.

BACKGROUND: The cavitation sounds heard during chiropractic adjustments of the spine are common phenomena; yet, their location relative to the technique used is relatively untested. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to locate the cavitation sounds during the L5 spinous hook adjustment and a lower sacroiliac adjustment. The sounds were analyzed for significant difference in location relative to the 2 techniques. METHODS: Thirty asymptomatic volunteers were randomly divided into 2 equal groups. Each group represented either the spinous hook adjustment or lower sacroiliac adjustment. Subjects had 8 microphones taped to their skin, over the relevant facet and sacroiliac joints. Radiographic confirmation was used to ensure optimal placement of the microphones. Sound signals produced during the adjustments were digitized, recorded, and analyzed statistically. RESULTS: The results indicated that no statistically significant correlation existed between the anatomical location of cavitation sounds and the adjustment technique selected. CONCLUSION: Location of cavitation sounds does not appear to have a relationship with type of manipulative technique selected. Further studies using other techniques need to be performed.

Adult↗

Low frequency sounds from sustained contraction of human skeletal muscle.

Low frequency audible vibrations are produced by human skeletal muscles undergoing sustained contraction. The effect is easily demonstrable with an electronic stethoscope which amplifies sound below 50 Hz. Autocorrelation analysis of the signal shows that it is periodic with a frequency 25 +/- 2.5 Hz. The quality of the sound is the same for all the skeletal muscles tested and is unaffected by changes in tension, ambient temperature, and blood flow. Electrically-stimulated contraction produces a sound which is indistinguishable from voluntary contraction. The amplitude of the sound increases linearly with tension. The sound signals are uncorrelated both in frequency and phase with electromyographic signals obtained simultaneously while the muscle is contacted. Arguments are presented to show that the sounds may be an intrinsic property of muscle contraction.

Humans↗

Muscle contraction generates discrete sound bursts.

Isolated frog sartorius muscles were stimulated to shorten under lightly loaded conditions. A piezoelectric transducer was placed alongside the muscle to record sounds generated during contraction. Shortening was accompanied by the generation of a series of discrete sound bursts. The bursts were found to be moderately repeatable among successive contractions; 44% repeated from contraction to contraction. The duration of each sound burst was on the order of 400 mus, and the temperature dependence of the interval between successive bursts had a Q10 of approximately 2. Sound intensity was variable: average acoustic power ranged from 0.05-0.4 mW/g, or approximately 1% of the heat generated during contraction. The generation of discrete bursts of sound during contraction, rather than continuous sound, implies that contractile behavior may be discontinuous.

Animals↗

The mechanism of low-frequency sound production in muscle.

Frog gastrocnemius muscles stimulated isometrically in a saline bath at 20 degrees C were found to produce a single ringing sound event beginning just before the tension record began to rise. The sound event was substantially over by the time the isometric tension began to fall. Results from studies correlating the spatial pattern of the sound, the amplitude and frequency of the sound as a function of the muscle length, and the response of both the passive and active muscle to a transverse pluck were found to be consistent with the conclusion that the sounds in these muscles are caused primarily by transverse resonant vibrations. As the muscle develops force, its lack of cylindrical symmetry gives rise to lateral motions, which are most likely the initiators of the bending vibrations detected as sound.

Animals↗

Long-term changes of response in the inferior colliculus of senescence accelerated mice after early sound exposure.

Early sound exposure could alter auditory sensitivity in young animals. For example, the distribution of frequency tuning at the midbrain inferior colliculus (IC) is altered following early exposure to a tone at a moderate intensity level. Whether such neonatal change is still present in the old animals remains unknown. We studied the long-term effects of early sound exposure using a mutant strain of mice expressing accelerated senescence (SAM). Experimental animals were first exposed to a 9-kHz tone (53 dB sound pressure level (SPL)) for 30 days (10 h/day) after birth. Control animals received no tones. At the age of 15 months, responses of single IC units to sounds were studied electrophysiologically under urethane anesthesia. In the control group, we found an overall reduction in sensitivity to tones particularly at high frequencies, in comparison with normal non-senescent mice. Moreover, neurons exhibited increased spontaneous activities. These signs are consistent with accelerated senescence. Early sound exposure produced two effects in the experimental group. Firstly, IC units showed an apparent 'clustering' of best frequencies towards the frequency of the exposing tone (i.e., 9 kHz). Secondly, there was a further loss in sensitivity to tones particularly at high frequencies. Results suggest that early sound exposure has produced a long-lasting effect on frequency tuning of IC neurons. Acoustic overstimulation early in life may also accelerate the senescence of neurons or structures in the auditory system.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Discountinuous lung sounds and hysteresis in control and Tween 20-rinsed excised rat lungs.

In the past, the relationship between pulmonary hysteresis and a model of the recruitment-derecruitment of lung units has been explored (Cheng, W., DeLong, D.S., Franz, G.N., Petsonk, E.L., Frazer, D.G., 1995, Resp. Physiol. 102, 205-215). The recruitment process is characterized by a sequence of events which represents discrete configurational changes in lung structure. It is assumed that energy released during the opening of lung units is associated with the formation of discontinuous lung sounds. The goal of this study was to record tracheal sounds for lungs inflated from different end-expiratory pressures and to relate the sound power to the normalized hysteresis of individual pressure-volume (PL-VL) loops. PL-VL curves and lung sounds were recorded for control lungs and lungs rinsed with Tween 20 in order to estimate the role of alveolar surfactant on the recruitment-derecruitment process. Results indicate that there may be two populations of lung units, one which is altered by Tween 20 and another which is not. The population not affected by Tween 20 appears to be responsible for producing discrete lung sounds and may represent the opening of larger conducting airways. The second population, possibly within the respiratory zone, is affected by alterations in surface tension and contributes to pulmonary hysteresis, but, apparently, does not contribute significantly to lung sound power measured at the trachea.

Animals↗

The effect of intention to learn novel, environmental sounds on the novelty P3 and old/new recognition memory.

Brain electrical activity was recorded while 32 young adults listened to frequent tones, infrequent target tones, and infrequent novel environmental sounds (some of which repeated). Subjects in the incidental group were not informed about the novel sounds, while subjects in the intentional group were informed and, in addition, were asked to memorize them for a subsequent memory test. Following the novelty oddball task, all subjects were given an old/new sound recognition memory task. The novelty P3 showed a more anterior scalp distribution and an effect of repetition in the incidental compared to the intentional group, suggesting that pre-categorizing the novel sounds influenced how they were processed. For the intentional group only, a subsequent memory effect was elicited by novel sounds that were subsequently recognized compared to those that were not, although both groups showed robust old/new ERP effects during the recognition task. The robust subsequent memory effects in the intentional group were associated with greater recognition accuracy of familiar environmental sounds relative to the incidental group. These data suggest that the encoding activity reflected in the ERP subsequent memory effect may have engendered an advantage in subsequent recognition memory performance.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Role of the dorsal cochlear nucleus in the sound localization behavior of cats.

The role of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in directional hearing was evaluated by measuring sound localization behaviors before and after cats received lesions of the dorsal and intermediate acoustic striae (DAS/IAS). These lesions are presumed to disrupt spectral processing in the DCN without affecting binaural time and level difference cues that exit the cochlear nucleus via the ventral acoustic stria. Prior to DAS/IAS lesions, cats made accurate head orientation responses toward sound sources in the frontal sound field. After a unilateral DAS/IAS lesion, subjects showed increased errors in the azimuth and elevation of their responses; in addition, the final orientation of head movements tended to be more variable. Largest deficits in response elevation were observed in the hemifield that was ipsilateral to the lesion. When a second lesion was placed in the opposite DAS/IAS, increased orientation errors were observed throughout the frontal field. Nonetheless, bilaterally lesioned cats showed normal discrimination of changes in sound source location when tested with a spatial acuity task. These findings support previous interpretations that the DCN contributes to sound orientation behavior, and further suggest that the identification of absolute sound source locations and the discrimination between spatial locations involve independent auditory processing mechanisms.

Animals↗

Long term effects of intense sound on endocochlear DC potential.

Changes in endocochlear DC potential (EP) after single and repeated intense sound exposure and negative EP induced by anoxia were observed in guinea pigs with passage of time. The intense sound used was a pure tone of 2 kHz at 145 dB SPL for 4 h. The single exposure group was divided into 8 groups of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, and 60 days after sound exposure. The EP level dropped remarkably in the 1 and 2 day groups and recovered almost completely in the remaining groups. In the 60 day group, EP was significantly higher than that of the control group. The double exposure group consisted of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 day groups after the second exposure at an interval of 30 to 40 days. EP in the 1, 2, 5, and 10 day groups was significantly lower than the control level and in the 20 and 30 day groups was almost the same as that of the controls. In all groups after single and double sound exposure, disappearance of negative EP during anoxia was observed. The EP decrease after sound exposure was apparently caused by a mechanical but reversible lesion at the stria vascularis. The disappearance of negative EP after sound exposure was thought to be induced by an irreversible lesion of Corti's organ.

Animals↗

Perception of sound-source motion by the human brain.

We assessed the human brain network for sound-motion processing using the same virtual stimulus in three independent functional imaging experiments. All experiments show a bilateral posterior network of activation, including planum temporale (PT) and parieto-temporal operculum (PTO). This was demonstrated in contrasts between sound movement and two control conditions: externalized stationary stimuli (in the midline or to the side of the head) and midline sounds within the head with similar spectro-temporal structure. We suggest specific computational mechanisms in PT for disambiguation of the intrinsic spectro-temporal features of a sound and the spectro-temporal effect of sound movement. The results support the existence of a posteriorly directed temporo-parietal pathway for obligatory perceptual processing of sound-source motion.

Adult↗

Effect of experimental lung oedema on cough sound creation.

We have assessed the importance of changes in lung structure on the pattern of cough sound and its creation with 13 anaesthetized cats. Acute lung injury with oedema was induced by i.v. administration of a mixture of fatty acids. Cough was elicited by mechanical stimulation of the mucous membranes of the airways and was evaluated by its intensities of effort and sound before and up to 2 h after administration of the fatty acids. Changes of cough sound pattern were not definitive, there being no typical alterations. The cough effort and sound intensities, induced from the trachea, consistently decreased (by 70-80% in both cases). The cough efforts immediately after induction of oedema were transiently abolished in some cats. The cough values induced from the larynx similarly decreased at 5 min (51-57%) but subsequently gradually returned to control values. There were significant correlations, both for coughs induced from the trachea and from the larynx, and for changes in intensity of efforts compared with sounds. Thus, pathological changes in the lungs modify the intensities both of cough efforts and their associated sounds.

Animals↗

Study of sound localization by owls and its relevance to humans.

Human psychoacoustical studies have been the main sources of information from which the brain mechanisms of sound localization are inferred. The value of animal models would be limited, if humans and the animals did not share the same perceptual experience and the neural mechanisms for it. Barn owls and humans use the same method of computing interaural time differences for localization in the horizontal plane. The behavioral performance of owls and its neural bases are consistent with some of the theories developed for human sound localization. Neural theories of sound localization largely owe their origin to the study of sound localization by humans, even though little is known about the physiological properties of the human auditory system. One of these ideas is binaural cross-correlation which assumes that the human brain performs a process similar to mathematical cross-correlation to measure the interaural time difference for localization in the horizontal plane. The most complete set of neural evidence for this theory comes from the study of sound localization and its brain mechanisms in barn owls, although partial support is also available from studies on laboratory mammals. Animal models of human sensory perception make two implicit assumptions; animals and humans experience the same percept and the same neural mechanism underlies the creation of the percept. These assumptions are hard to prove for obvious reason. This article reviews several lines of evidence that similar neural mechanisms must underlie the perception of sound locations in humans and owls.

Animals↗

Apparent distance of sounds recorded in echoic and anechoic chambers.

With miniature microphones inserted into the external ear canals of a model and the sound source 90 degrees to left of midline, low-pass, and broadband noise bursts were picked up and recorded on magnetic tape. The bursts were generated in two highly contrasting acoustic environments: an anechoic and an echoic chamber. The taped sounds were played back monaurally and binaurally via headphones to 16 listeners seated in an acoustically neutral setting. They were instructed to estimate the distance of the stimuli. Apparent distances of bursts recorded in the echoic or reverberant chamber far exceeded those recorded in the anechoic chamber. It mattered not whether the sounds were presented monaurally or binaurally. What did influence distance estimates dramatically was the frequency composition of the stimuli. Low-pass sounds recorded in either acoustic environment were consistently judged to be further removed than high-pass sounds recorded in the same setting. They were also more likely to appear from behind the listener. In our moment-to-moment transaction with the acoustic environment, distant sounds generally have less acoustic energy in the higher audio frequency. We suggest that this lifetime of auditory experience influenced our listeners' scale of relative distance.

Auditory Perception↗

Designing trend-monitoring sounds for helicopters: methodological issues and an application.

This article explores methodological issues in sonification and sound design arising from the design of helicopter monitoring sounds. Six monitoring sounds (each with 5 levels) were tested for similarity and meaning with 3 different techniques: hierarchical cluster analysis, linkage analysis, and multidimensional scaling. In Experiment 1, similarity ratings for the top and bottom levels of the sounds were obtained. In Experiments 2 and 3, the stimuli were rated along adjectives relevant to their application. The different sound groupings that resulted from the different clustering techniques are discussed, as is the potentially contradictory relationship between acoustic dimensions and adjectival descriptors. Generally, the results validate the design of the sounds and show that increases in stimulus value are more salient than are decreases.

Adult↗

Cognitive load of navigating without vision when guided by virtual sound versus spatial language.

A vibrotactile N-back task was used to generate cognitive load while participants were guided along virtual paths without vision. As participants stepped in place, they moved along a virtual path of linear segments. Information was provided en route about the direction of the next turning point, by spatial language ("left," "right," or "straight") or virtual sound (i.e., the perceived azimuth of the sound indicated the target direction). The authors hypothesized that virtual sound, being processed at direct perceptual levels, would have lower load than even simple language commands, which require cognitive mediation. As predicted, whereas the guidance modes did not differ significantly in the no-load condition, participants showed shorter distance traveled and less time to complete a path when performing the N-back task while navigating with virtual sound as guidance. Virtual sound also produced better N-back performance than spatial language. By indicating the superiority of virtual sound for guidance when cognitive load is present, as is characteristic of everyday navigation, these results have implications for guidance systems for the visually impaired and others.

Adult↗

Auditory cortical responses in the cat to sounds that produce spatial illusions.

Humans and cats can localize a sound source accurately if its spectrum is fairly broad and flat, as is typical of most natural sounds. However, if sounds are filtered to reduce the width of the spectrum, they result in illusions of sources that are very different from the actual locations, particularly in the up/down and front/back dimensions. Such illusions reveal that the auditory system relies on specific characteristics of sound spectra to obtain cues for localization. In the auditory cortex of cats, temporal firing patterns of neurons can signal the locations of broad-band sounds. Here we show that such spike patterns systematically mislocalize sounds that have been passed through a narrow-band filter. Both correct and incorrect locations signalled by neurons can be predicted quantitatively by a model of spectral processing that also predicts correct and incorrect localization judgements by human listeners. Similar cortical mechanisms, if present in humans, could underlie human auditory spatial perception.

Animals↗

Reducing light and sound in the neonatal intensive care unit: an evaluation of patient safety, staff satisfaction and costs.

OBJECTIVES: To modify an existing Level III neonatal intensive care unit and to compare light and sound levels in the renovated nursery with an adjacent traditionally configured nursery. Further, to assess the impact of this practice on patient safety, staff perceptions of the nursery environments, and to document costs of renovation. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective comparison of light and sound levels in identical six-bed patient rooms within an existing intensive care unit. One room was modified to reduce light and sound, and the other served as a control. Costs of renovation were documented. Patient characteristics, severity of illness and safety outcomes were documented following modifications. Physician and nursing staff were surveyed on their perceptions of the renovations. RESULTS: Both light and sound were reduced with modifications that incurred modest costs. Patient safety was not influenced adversely by reduced light or sound levels. Staff members were highly satisfied with reductions in sound levels. Reactions to reduced lighting levels were more mixed and led to modification of bedside lighting. CONCLUSIONS: Cost-effective renovations to an existing NICU are possible, desirable, and do not impact patient safety. The reductions achieved, however, are less than those reached with new construction.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Disturbances in airflow dynamics and tracheal sounds during forced and quiet breathing in subjects with unilateral vocal fold paralysis.

Variable extra thoracic obstruction has been found in spirometric studies in subjects with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. The aim of the study was to further evaluate airflow dynamics in these subjects with body plethysmography and tracheal sound analysis. Ten patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis without a history of chronic pulmonary diseases and 10 healthy control subjects were studied. Flow-volume spirometry, body plethysmography and tracheal sound analysis were performed within 1 day. The study shows that peak inspiratory flow (PIF) and specific airway conductance (SG(aw)) expressed as percentage of Finnish reference values were significantly lower and airway resistance (R(aw)) was higher among the patients than among the controls (P=0.004, P=0.026 and P=0.004, respectively). The patients had higher sound amplitude of both inspiratory and expiratory tracheal sounds than the controls [root mean square (RMS) values of the power spectra were 31.5 and 25 dB, P=0.006 in inspiration and 31.5 and 26 dB, P=0.013 in expiration, respectively]. Quartile frequencies (F25 and F50) and RMS of expiratory tracheal sounds had significant negative correlation with PIF (P=0.02, P<0.001, P=0.02, respectively) and forced inspiratory volume in 1 s (FIV(1)) (P=0.01, P<0.001, P=0.01, respectively). There was also an association between F50 and peak expiratory flow (PEF) (P=0.02). According to the present study, both quiet breathing and forced inspiration are disturbed in subjects with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. A close relationship between tracheal sounds and respiratory function tests exists.

Aged↗