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I also got this information from this website: http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/92381-question-on-the-trigeminal-nerve/ The external ear is supplied by the auriculotemporal (fifth cranial) nerve (and probably by contributions from cranial nerves VII, IX, and X) and the great auricular nerve. The posterior auricular and superficial temporal arteries of the external carotid artery provide the blood supply. The tympanic membrane is highly sensitive (cranial nerves V and X laterally and IX medially). The middle ear is supplied by the auriculotemporal (fifth cranial) and tympanic (ninth cranial) nerves and by the auricular branch of the vagus I understand how the ear works. What i am asking is that can the eardrum be stimulated with an electrical signal in the audio spectrum to create audio the same way as vibrations in the air do to the eardrum. in 1937–By passing an alternating electrical current in the audible frequency range from an electrode to the skin, Steven, Jones, Lurie and Flottorp found they could have people hear sounds. What i mean is the Cochlear hearing aid works on the cochlear with electrical stimulation because the hairs etc. in deaf people are damaged badly so the acoustic nerve is stimulated with a spiral wire. With a person who has no hearing problems can you stimulate the eardrum or ear canal even, since it covers the outer side of the eardrum, with an electric current in the audible frequency range to achieve audio signals that you can hear like the Cochlear hearing works?. And since Cranial Nerve 5 is the sensation nerve along with the vagus nerve in the ear canal, if you were to stimulate this area would it also stimulate the voice box (Like the Arnold Reflex) and eyes due to the trigeminal supplying sensory functions to the eyeballs, eyelids, eyebrows etc. I know the trigeminal is for sensory only like touch, pain and temperature. I am asking that if you where to electrically stimulate that nerve would that stimulation use the trigeminal nerve to create muscle contractions on the target are's muscle groups. like the eyelids, eyebrows and voice box muscles etc?

I got the information from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4005528 Tympanic membrane sensation. Saunders RL, Weider D. AbstractSensation from the tympanic membrane is generally believed to be mediated via at least four cranial nerves, some authors describing discrete territories for each of these nerves. The lack of critical evidence for independent sensory areas prompted a clinical study of tympanic membrane sensation in 32 patients having known cranial nerve deficits. Tympanic membrane sensation was tested in four quadrants using a 300 mg bristle under a Zeiss operating microscope. The findings were highly suggestive of a predominantly nociceptive system. Any change relative to the opposite tympanum was usually anaesthesia. No complete trigeminal deficit retained perception in all tympanic quadrants. Facial, glossopharyngeal and vagal deficits alone never affected tympanic sensation. These findings support the trigeminal nerve as the principal sensory nerve to the tympanic membrane, supplemented only inconstantly and incompletely by the other cranial nerves.

It has been established that the Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum) receives all of its sensory from the trigeminal nerve according to studies and that it is supplemented only inconstantly and incompletely by the other cranial nerves X & IX. With advances in Hearing Earpieces in the mobile phone industry, namely headphones. Would it be plausible that we could in effect attach an electrical device to the Eardrum itself to stimulate the eardrum with impulses causing it to react with minute vibrations thus creating audio? Or if the Eardrum was to be electrically stimulated it will in effect stimulate the whole trigeminal nerve causing pain in the Ears, Eyes and Forehead muscles? Is it possible that if you were to stimulate the Trigeminal Nerve with electricity would it as a side effect also cause muscle contractions in the Ears, Eyeballs and Forehead? I know it is a sensory only nerve for the sensation of pain and temperature but if we are to send a signal to the 3 branches would it activate motor control in those areas causing muscle contractions and stimulation of the tear ducts etc ? Also since the eardrum itself is made up of two layers, the inner and outer layer and since the outer layer shares the ear canal and thus the vagus nerve, would electrical stimulation of the Eardrum cause the Arnold Reflex to occur in the voice box/throat causing contractions in the voice box muscles? Thanks Barry

I've noticed upon research that the Tympanic membrane shares the Vagus Nerve as well as the Trigeminal Nerve and the Facial Nerve. Could it be possible that the Tympanic Membrane shares a specific strand of the Vagus nerve allowing us to hear the signals we are sending to our voice box. I mean we send a signal to the voice box and it isn't until we breathe in and stimulate the voice box's muscles in a strong way we create speech, so when we talk to ourselves we are still using the muscles of the voice box but instead of the Vocal Folds vibrating could the Vagus nerve be sending the same signal to the Tympanic Membrane causing it to essentially vibrate allowing us to hear ourselves talk into ourselves? When people suffer from total hearing loss due to say an explosion when on service in the Army they report that they can no longer hear themselves think like they used to. But their Voice Box is fine. Could that explain that yes we do send the same signal to our eardrum so we can hear what we say or think into ourselves?

Simple question. When we talk to ourselves we are still using our voice box to some degree. Like when we read a book (Not Speed Reading) to really understand something we use the voice box even more. When we're pissed off about something we actually contract the muscles more still to the point discomfort and exhausting going over something in our head over and over again. My question is does anyone know what muscles in the voice box are we actually using? When we talk out aloud the Vocal Chords are actually being vibrated by certain muscles in the voice box not the by the nerves (I read that somewhere online that since 1950 Neurologist have ruled out that the vocal folds are directly controlled by a nerve). Does anybody know which muscle(s) do that? Since those muscles actually control the vibration of the vocal folds then is it sufficient to suggest that those muscles can also vibrate/oscillate like the vocal folds only not as much? I'm thinking that these muscles use the vocal folds like a pluck to a guitar string, but when we talk into ourselves like when focusing on something we are reading, are we actually oscillating those particular muscles but not the vocal folds? Thanks Barry

So it is still possible to activate parts of the bundle to contract certain muscle groups of the face? How in theory can you stimulate those bundles? I noticed the video above moving your arm is possible but they are using the signal from the nerve that is at that specific muscle group. To do like wise on the face then obviously he would need to place the same electrodes on say the nerves at the eyebrow and be capable of doing the same thing, cause another persons eyebrows to move. Again would it be possible to have a small electrode implant on the main cervical nerve before it branches out to the arms to do the same thing? ie pick up the signal being created at that point and then repeat it. Once repeated would it stimulate the arm the same way? I'm thinking that there would be a lot of signals being picked up and in turn a lot of muscles will be stimulated again, not just the forearm. But in a case like that could the signals be separated? Are they different from one another or like the video above, its just a case of on/off on the nerve in that muscle group and the same on/off on the cervical nerve will stimulate all of the muscles associated with it with no rhythm, ie they all just tense up that's it. But say we did pick up that signal say on C5 where the patient does a few movements, we record that signal, and then we repeat it directly on the C5 nerve. Would it recreate the same movements of all those muscles? What equipment is that guy actually using on that first video?

So in a way the Facial Nerve is like a wire only inside there are say 100 wires that branch out to different parts of the face. So does that mean that those 100 wires at the brain are branched out too in that area of the brain? And thus the activation of certain muscles is dependent on which of the 100 quadrants of the brain send a signal down the main wire (Facial Nerve)? I have another question regarding electrical stimulation of nerves. In theory would it be possible to attach an electrode to the facial nerve (Lets leave out where and how to attach one) and be able to control different parts of the facial muscles using different frequencies/impulses of electrical stimulation? So in effect would it be possible to stimulate 1 of those 100 wires using certain frequencies/impulses or would you just end up stimulating the whole face?

I have a question? Is it possible to have a mental illness that cause the following 3 symptoms: Extreme ear pain? The pain can be constant all day or come as stabbing pain every 5 seconds for hours and then stop. Facial Eye Pain? The pain is mostly the upper eye lid and the eyebrows close to the nose only. The pain can again be constant all day long or sometimes it can be a stabbing pain every 5 seconds or so. The eye lids can also become extremely tired and hard to keep open like they have lost all energy to stay open. The unusual thing about this symptom is that it also comes and goes like the stabbing pain. The eyelids suddenly become exhausted and extremely tired over and over again in pulsations and then suddenly stop all together. Like when you are fighting to stay awake only i am not tired at all. Throat Choking and involuntary muscle movements of the larynx/voice box? The throat never stops moving all day long like it is talking even though I am not talking to myself making it hard to breath all day long causing a feeling of suffocation all day long. It gets far worse when the I relax especially when I try to sleep. My throat is moving away in the extreme with a feeling of choking because the muscles will not stop moving. Eventually it calms down after about an hour or so and I can fall asleep. But during the night there are times where I wake up moaning because my vocal chords have spasm'd so badly it feels like the have been plucked like a guitar string. Again I get pulsating conditions like above where my throat contracts severely to the point of choking of the muscles that is awful and can sometimes make me feel sick. The strange thing is that when I am socializing or talking to people all the symptoms go away. If i was to stay out all night with friends I never experience them. But as soon as I am alone or relaxing the throat will start moving again and then the ears and eyes follow. It is ruing my life and making my life a complete misery. I have been to ENT and Neurologists and they are all baffled why this is happening and are scratching their heads which does not help me at all. Everything i have a test done my Specialist is happy everything is all clear and I am extremely upset and depressed that yet again i can't find the reason this is happening to me. Hope someone can help on here? Thanks Barry

Excuse me for being a complete novice to Neurology but I have a question regarding how the Facial Nerve actually controls different muscles. For example, the Facial Nerve controls the obicularis oculi, procures, corrugator supercilii muscles but how does this work? When we open/close the eyelid are we sending certain frequencies of electrical signals down the nerve and each muscle works on different frequencies? Like tuning your radio? If so is it possible to use an electrode to stimulate the obicularis oculi, procures, corrugator supercilii muscles only with a certain frequency of electrical current or am i totally wrong here? Thanks Barry

I have a few questions regarding the nerves of the Larynx/Voice Box: Is there anywhere in the throat area where the laryngeal nerves are exposed to allow electrodes to be placed for electrical stimulation of the Voice Box/Vocal Chords muscles? For instance is it possible, like the facial nerve in the middle ear, to attach an electrode (Electrode that is stuck on as opposed to punctured with needles) on the laryngeal nerve in the throat or does it require a needle electrode and exposure of the nerve through surgery etc.? Are there any nerves exposed in the middle ear cavity that also through the use of electrical stimulation will cause the muscles in the larynx to contract/spasm if an electrode was attached? Can you let me know all of the nerves that could cause muscle spasms in the larynx/Voice Box? Are there any nerves in the Voice Box/Larynx that can cause stimulation of the ear drum/Middle Ear? I know of the Arnold Reflex and the vagus nerve but are there any other nerves that go to the middle ear/inner ear that also originate from the larynx/Voice Box or vice versa? Thanks Barry