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The Outer ear consists of the pinna or auricle (visible parts including ear lobes and concha), and the auditory meatus (the passageway for sound). The fundamental function of this part of the ear is to gather sound energy and deliver it to the eardrum. Resonances of the external ear selectively boost sound pressure with frequency in the range 2 ...
Through the mechanisms of compression and rarefaction, sound waves travel through the air, bounce off the pinna and concha of the exterior ear, and enter the ear canal. In mammals, the sound waves vibrate the tympanic membrane , causing the three bones of the middle ear to vibrate, which then sends the energy through the oval window and into ...
The eardrum is an airtight membrane, and when sound waves arrive there, they cause it to vibrate following the waveform of the sound. Cerumen (ear wax) is produced by ceruminous and sebaceous glands in the skin of the human ear canal, protecting the ear canal and tympanic membrane from physical damage and microbial invasion. [5]
Sound that travels through the outer ear impacts on the eardrum, and causes it to vibrate. The three ossicles bones transmit this sound to a second window (the oval window), which protects the fluid-filled inner ear. In detail, the pinna of the outer ear helps to focus a sound, which impacts on the eardrum.
The stapedius reflex of the middle ear muscles helps protect the inner ear from damage by reducing the transmission of sound energy when the stapedius muscle is activated in response to sound. The middle ear still contains the sound information in wave form; it is converted to nerve impulses in the cochlea.
The cochlea is a portion of the inner ear that looks like a snail shell (cochlea is Greek for snail). [5] The cochlea receives sound in the form of vibrations, which cause the stereocilia to move. The stereocilia then convert these vibrations into nerve impulses which are taken up to the brain to be interpreted.
It is caused by the fact that even though one ear is unable to respond to the test, the other ear can still be stimulated by the bone conduction test (via conducting sound through skull bones to the opposite ear), causing the patient to respond to the tuning fork on mastoid but not when it's placed near the affected ear's air canal. [5]
The perception of auditory signals came as a nervous impulse from the inner ear to the cochlear nuclei of the brainstem, [11] which is the first relay station. In an ascending pathway, various acoustic reflexes and sound localisation are regulated via relay stations.