It is well known that there is communication between the auditory and the visual system. Audiologists frequently take advantage of this relationship in balance system diagnostics as related to the vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR). Yet, new findings suggest this relationship is not limited to the inner ear.

A recent study out of Duke University (Gruters et al, 2018) demonstrated that saccadic movements of the eye to visual targets resulted in a conjugated movement of the eardrum. The eardrum motion was oscillatory and began as early as 10 months before the saccade onset. The investigators dubbed the phenomenon eye movement-related eardrum oscillations (EMREOs).

The authors speculate the source of the EMREO may derive from a copy of the motor command to generate the eye movement, which may then engages middle-ear muscles, though further work is needed to define the pathway (see Gruters et al, 2018). The eardrums move when the eyes move: A multi-sensory effect on the mechanics of hearing (PNAS, prepub).

Reference

Gruters KG, Murphy DLK, Jenson CD, Smith DW, Shera CA, Groh JM. (2017)  The eardrums move when the eyes move: A multisensory effect on the mechanics of hearing. [3] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States. December 7.