Why Do I Hear So Much Better When I Touch My Ear (Tragus) with My Finger?

Hearing Loss
#1

Okay guys, this has been on my mind for very long time and I can’t seem to find an explanation for this. I know that cupping your hand around your ear can help to amplify sounds and boost frequencies between 1 kHz and 4 kHz but I am not talking about that. If I touch my tragus with my one finger for example, everything suddenly sounds so much brighter.

Let’s say I am hearing crickets and the sound is very far and faint. If I touch my tragus, the sound will be near and very clear. If I am cooking or hearing a machine sound, or white noise etc… just by touching my tragus everything will sound so rich and shiny. When I listen to music and I touch my tragus I hear the Hi-Hats and cymbals much better, even the snares will sound richer. It is like I hear more the clarity and the sizzle of the music, there’s a lot of details in music that I couldn’t hear without touching my tragus!

It is like I have low-pass filter in my ears that I can only cancel with touching my tragus. Cupping my ears with my hands will not let me hear the high frequencies I hear with touching my tragus.

I do have mild hearing loss between 6khz and 8khz and moderate hearing loss above 8khz and tinnitus. If I touch my tragus I would hear just like if I don’t have any hearing loss in high frequencies at all. I tried playing a sine-wave at 6khz on at 5% volume on my computer speakers, I could barely hear it (very very faint) I touched my tragus and the magic happens, the 6 kHz sounded so freaking loud suddenly, but when I “untouch” my tragus, I hear the 6 kHz very faint, so if I touch and release I will hear (Beep, Beep, Beep…)

I figure out that with touching my tragus I amplify these high frequencies, and I would hear them just like if I didn’t have any hearing loss at all in that range. I would be interested to know if somebody here is experiencing the same?

Is there anybody who has an explanation for this? Now I listen to all the music with fingers on tragus LOL!

Does anybody has an explanation for this ?

#2

Same thing here. Just noticed this last night while watching tv. I have no idea why this happens but I’m sure someone here can explain it.

#3

I find that pressure can change the fit of my receiver in my ear canal. For example, stopping any vent-like leakage of sound. It is quite noticeable. I am trialing new hearing aids so that I am using power domes rather than my usual custom molds. The custom molds were immune to these changes.

#4

I didn’t know what the word tragus was. I had the same problem with my old hearing aids that were letting in a lot of feedback. I would press the tragus like you said and the sound would definitely increase a lot. Now that I have new Resound Aids I don’t have that problem at all because my domes are fitting as well as if I had molds. Unable to replicate it.

I know I posted about it and went back and looked at all my old posts but could not find it as I obviously discussed it under another titled Post. There is a reason why that works but frankly I forget what it is. Someone will answer you about this.

I am so glad that touching the tragus works for you.

#5

Hmm! I never heard the word Tragus before so I looked it up. Dictionary says: a prominence on the inner side of the external ear, in front of and partly closing the passage to the organs of hearing.

So I tried pressing my Tragua in and yes, the hearing does seem to get better until the finger is taken off again. My guess is that this happens because when you press the Tragus, the hearing canal opens up a bit more and funnels the sound directly to the ear drum (tympanic membrane).

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