The air and bone conduction system
SOUNDSORY® uses two different types of sound processing, both air and bone conduction, to stimulate the brain. These two systems emphasize different ways of sensory processing and complement each other.
Sound is a vibration! When it travels through the air, we use the term “air conduction”. Sound travels even better through the bones of the body: this is called “bone conduction.” Cover your ears and speak normally. You hear your voice perfectly clear because it travels mainly through the bones of the skull. Speak louder and you can feel your whole body vibrate. SOUNDSORY® transmits music through headphones equipped with both air and bone conduction. The music therefore reaches the auditory and vestibular canals through the headphones placed on each ear and through a vibration at the top of the skull.
Air conduction
The sound, which comes from the air canal, arrives at the tympanic membrane before reaching the inner ear and being transmitted to the brain.
Bone conduction
The sound is directly transmitted to the inner ear without passing through the tympanum. Transmission by bone is naturally 10 times faster than the air canal.
This dual transmission of the sound in two times will therefore educate the brain to correctly analyze the sensory sound message.
Bone conduction also better transmits low frequencies, which directly go to the vestibule through bone vibration. The first role of the vestibular system is to cope with gravity and contribute to the sense of balance and spatial orientation for the purpose of coordinating movement with balance. The vestibular system is in charge of detecting changes of movements at the level of the body in order to enable constant postural readjustments. Bone conduction favors its mission.
The auditory and vestibular system
The interconnected actions of the auditory and vestibular systems have a major role to play in the coordination of movement and balance, which in turn impact brain function.
Enhancing the accuracy of sensory information sent from the ear to its multiple connections throughout the nervous system
The function of the ear is to feel and hear sounds and movement. It is referred to as the vestibular-cochlear system. The ear is not only an auditory organ which perceives sounds but also a motor organ which captures our movements and determines our balance, rhythm and coordination. Try covering an ear while walking and you will see that you will suffer significant loss of balance. The auditory part of the inner ear is the Cochlea. The motor part is the vestibular system.
The cochlea
The Cochlea Organ is deeply involved in speech processing and musical analysis. It looks like a snail covered withof cells inside and arranged from the lowest to the highest pitch. Almost 80% of the total length is devoted to the reception and analysis of high frequencies (from 800 HZ and above). The fact that Because a huge proportion of cells are dedicated to perceivinge high frequencies, this explains why those frequency sounds provide more stimulation to the brain than lower frequency ones.
Because the Patented Dynamic Filter effect of SOUNDSORY® favors high frequencies, the brain is progressively learning how to process those important frequencies and get the most from of this stimulation.
The Vestibular system
The Vestibular system is strongly involved in posture and balance as well as muscle tone, coordination, sense of rhythm, body schema, spatial navigation, integration of the two body sides, and motor planning. The vestibular system is in charge of detecting changes of movements at the level of the body in order to enable constant postural readjustments. It is composed of the saccule, utricle, and the three semicircular canals. The utricle and saccule are sensitive to changes of movements in a straight line. The semicircular canals are sensitive to changes of movement in rotation.
The vestibular system is highly sensitive to rhythm and movement. It is the organ which makes us move our feet, hips, hands, and head spontaneously when we listen to our favorite feel-good-song.
The music of SOUNDSORY® is specifically designed to be dynamic and emphasize rhythm. It provides strong vestibular stimulation. The impact is strengthened by the bone conduction technology implemented into SOUNDSORY®. Indeed, the vestibular system captures the rhythm of sounds directly through this vibration of the bones, which stimulates it more effectively than air conducted sound.
