29/08/2025
Some people are haunted by the constant sound of their own bodies. They can hear their eyeballs move and blood flow.
The cause?
For years, patients who reported hearing their own heartbeat, voice echo, or even eyeballs moving were dismissed or misdiagnosed.
That changed in 1995 when Dr. Lloyd Minor at Johns Hopkins met a patient who experienced visual distortions triggered by sound. His groundbreaking discovery revealed the cause: a tiny hole in the bone over the superior semicircular canal in the inner ear. This rare condition, called Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS), creates an unnatural "third window" in the skull, allowing internal sounds to be amplified and distorted, with debilitating effects on hearing and balance.
Dr. Minor not only identified the condition but pioneered a surgical treatment that sealed the hole with bone and tissue. The results were often immediate and dramatic—restoring normal hearing and balance to people who had struggled for years.
Since then, hundreds have found answers and relief through his technique, some traveling across continents for the chance to return to silence. For patients, the moment they no longer hear the eerie movement of their own eyes marks a profound return to normalcy—and proof that their symptoms were real all along.
Source: White, T. (2016, November 15). Hearing Things. Stanford Magazine
