Dr. Konstantina Stankovic

balanced canal, one of the canals.

We have focused on talking about the hearing part of the inner ear.

But the inner ear has one organ of hearing and five organs of balance.

Two organs that detect linear acceleration, one in a horizontal and the other in the vertical plane.

And then there are three organs that detect angular acceleration.

And these are the three semicircular canals.

Yes.

So what can happen is that over that superior semicircular canal, that bone can be missing partly, and people can have superhuman hearing.

They can hear everything.

They can hear their eyeballs moving.

They can hear their footsteps.

If they're taking a shower, it's deafeningly loud.

They really can't take it.

If an ambulance drives by, they start spinning.

If they are straining on the toilet, they start spinning and can pass out.

So that's called superior semicircular canal dehiscence.

And it was actually discovered by our dean, dean of the School of Medicine, Lloyd Minor, when...

He was at Hopkins University.

Because he was such an astute physician where he listened to a patient.

Because before him, when patients like that would come to our office, I mean, what would be your knee-jerk reflex?