Some People Can Make a Roaring Sound in Their Ears, And It's Totally Normal
31 DECEMBER 2020
Although we humans generally have control of our skeletal musculature, there's at least one we don't always have a handle on. In the middle ear sits the tensor tympani, and it seems most people are unable to contract it voluntarily.
Those that can contract their tensor tympani - a small muscle located above the auditory tube - are privy to a special skill: the action produces a low, thunder-like rumbling in their ears.
This is not a new discovery. Sound being produced by the voluntary contraction of this muscle was discussed on page 1,263 of physiologist Johannes Müller's 1842 text