Autophony

Autophony
Other names	Tympanophony

Autophony (also tympanophony) is the unusually loud hearing of a person's own voice.

Possible causes include:

• The "occlusion effect", caused by an object, such as an unvented hearing aid or a plug of ear wax, blocking the ear canal and reflecting sound vibration back towards the eardrum.^[1]
• Serous otitis media
• Open or patulous Eustachian tube, allowing vocal or breathing sounds to be conducted into the middle ear
• Superior canal dehiscence, which can lead to an abnormally amplified bone conduction of sound into the inner ear. Persons with superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) typically hear not only their own voice but also heartbeat, footsteps, chewing, intestinal sounds and possibly even the sound of their eye movements when reading.

References

1. Ross, Mark (2004). "The "Occlusion Effect" - What it is, and What to Do About it". Archived from the original on August 6, 2007.

External links

• O'Connor, A. F; Shea, J. J (1981). "Autophony and the patulous eustachian tube". The Laryngoscope. 91 (9 Pt 1): 1427–35. doi:10.1288/00005537-198109000-00003. PMID 7346684. S2CID 27024279.
• "Definition of Autophony". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
• Painhealth.com - Definition of Autophony
• emedicine Patulous Eustachian Tube
• SCDS with Autophony
• SCDS with Autophony - animation
• "Doctor, I can hear my eyes" - W Albuquerque, A M Bronstein
• ABC News - Health - The Musician Who Heard Too Much