HOW HEARING WORKS

The sound is one of the most beautiful forms of energy. It’s probably the first thing we experience in the morning when we wake up – we hear the sound of birds chirping or the alarm clock ringing. Sound fills our usual life with excitement. We hear these sounds through our ears. Let’s learn more about the structure of an ear, how it helps us to hear a sound.

The Hearing System

The anatomy of the hearing system can be divided into four components. These divisions are the:

• outer ear
• middle ear
• inner ear
• central auditory pathways

Our ears are constantly working through a series of intricate processes which we take it for granted.First the sound waves enter the ear canal and cause the ear drum to vibrate.These vibrations travel through three tiny bones in the middle ear, called the ossicles. The ossicles cause the sound to be amplified before it enters the inner ear.

The inner ear contains a fluid-filled cochlea that is lined with thousands of tiny hair cells. As the fluid moves in waves along the cochlea, approximately 12,000 hair cells bend. The frequency and intensity of the sound is determined by which hair cells bend.Stimulation of these sensory cells generates an electrical signal which travels to the brain via the auditory nerve. These nerve impulses are the “language” that the brain understands and converts into meaningful sounds.This is how we hear

 

Video Source : Starkey