Library · Physiology
Hearing
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Hearing is how sound from outside ends up as electrical signals inside you. The ear is the organ responsible for that, and for balance too.
The path has several steps. Air pushes against the tympanic membrane, the eardrum, and makes it vibrate. That vibration passes to the middle ear ossicles, three tiny bones called the malleus, the incus and the stapes. From there the vibration enters the cochlea, the snail-shaped part of the inner ear, where it no longer travels through air but through fluid. Sound changes vehicles three times: air, bone and fluid.
Inside the cochlea, which is the organ of hearing proper, that vibration moves the basilar membrane and the organ of Corti. That is where the important part happens: the vibration turns into nerve impulses that travel to the nervous system, and only then does it become something you hear.
In brief
Hearing turns sound vibrations into action potentials; the ear is the organ of hearing and of balance.
Air vibrates the tympanic membrane; the vibration passes to the middle ear ossicles, the malleus, incus and stapes, and in the cochlea it becomes fluid-borne.
Sound changes vehicles three times: air, bone and fluid.
In the cochlea, the organ of hearing, that vibration stimulates the basilar membrane and the organ of Corti, and there it becomes nerve impulses that travel to the nervous system.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Ear, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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