Hearing
Hearing is the ability to perceive sound.
The ear is an engineering marvel because its sensory receptors can transduce sound vibrations with amplitudes as
small as the diameter of a gold atom (0.3 nm) into electrical signals.
In the ear, mechanical energy is converted into electrical signals.
The signals are 1000 times faster than photoreceptors can respond to light.
The ear also contains receptors for equilibrium.
Anatomy of the Ear
The ear is divided into three main
regions:
1. The outer or external ear, which
collects sound waves and
channels them inward;
2. The middle ear, which conveys
sound vibrations to the oval
window;
3. The inner ear, which houses the
receptors for hearing and
equilibrium.
Outer ear
The outer ear consists of the auricle, external auditory canal, and eardrum.
The auricle is a flap of elastic cartilage shaped like the flared end of a trumpet and covered by
skin.
The rim of the auricle is helix; the inferior portion is the lobule. Ligaments and muscles attach the
auricle to the head.
The external auditory canal is a curved tube that extends upto the eardrum. The eardrum is a
thin partition between the external canal and the middle ear.
The eardrum is covered by epidermis.
The external canal contains a few hairs and specialized sweat glands (ceruminous glands) that
secrete earwax or cerumen.
What are perforated eardrum and impacted cerumen!!!
The middle ear is the small
Middle ear
air-filled cavity that is lined
by the epithelium.
Separated from external ear
by eardrum.
Auditory ossicles: malleus,
incus and stapes.
The base of the stapes fits
into the oval window.
Directly below the oval
window is another opening
called the round window.
Muscles/ligaments limits
movements of ossicles to
protect inner ear from loud
noises. Smallest skeletal muscle in human body???
Middle Ear – how it works …
Middle ear
Incus works as
Malleus
an
amplifier in
two ways
Stapes
Configuration
Area difference
of ossicles
(55 to 3.2 sq mm)
(Length of
malleus and
incus)
The Inner ear is also called the labyrinth. Inner ear
Bony labyrinth (BL) and membranous
labyrinth (ML).
BL contains perilymph and ML contains
endolymph.
The vestibule is the oval central portion of
the BL.
Utricle (little bag) and saccule (little sac).
They are connected to the main duct
through ampulla (swollen enlargements).
Vestibule houses sensory as well as motor
neurons that synapse with receptors for
equilibrium.
Anterior to vestibule is cochlea, a bony
spiral canal.
22 times amplification… The cochlea in the inner
But why?? ear conducts sound
through a liquid, instead
of through air. This fluid
has a much
higher inertia than air –
i.e., it is harder to move.
Hence, more pressure is
required.
Physiology of hearing
1. The auricle directs sound waves into the external auditory canal.
2. When sound waves strike the eardrum, it vibrates back and forth.
3. The malleus vibrates along with the eardrum, transmitting it further to the incus and then to the stapes.
4. The stapes moves back and forth and makes the oval window vibrate at an intensity ~22 times more than the eardrum.
5. This sets up fluid pressure waves in the perilymph of cochlea. As the oval window bulges inward, it pushes on the perilymph of scala vestibuli.
6. Pressure waves are further transmitted to scala tympani and eventually to the round window, making it to bulge outward into the middle ear.
7. Pressure waves pushes the vestibular membrane and then move into the endolymph of the cochlear duct.
8. The pressure in the endolymph causes the basilar membrane to vibrate. Hair cells are perturbed and electrical signal is generated from mechanical vibrations.
9. Sound waves of various frequencies cause certain regions of the basilar membrane to vibrate more intensely than other regions. Each segment of this membrane is
‘tuned’ for a particular pitch.
