Library · Anatomy
Middle ear
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The middle ear is an air-filled cavity hollowed out of the temporal bone, the bone on the side of the skull. It sits right between two boundaries: on the outside the tympanic membrane, which is the eardrum, and on the inside the oval window, an opening onto the inner ear.
Inside there are three bones: the malleus, the incus, and the stapes. Their job is to transmit and amplify the vibrations that reach the eardrum, carrying them to the oval window.
That last step is the important one. When the stapes moves against the oval window, the vibration leaves the air and enters the inner ear, which is filled with fluid, and that is where hearing begins. Three tiny bones bridge the vibrating air and the fluid on the other side.
In brief
The middle ear is an air-filled cavity within the temporal bone, sitting between the tympanic membrane on the outside and the oval window on the inside.
It holds the three auditory ossicles, the malleus, incus, and stapes, which transmit and amplify vibrations from the eardrum to the oval window.
Movement of the stapes in that window transfers mechanical energy to the fluid-filled inner ear and initiates hearing.
Three tiny bones bridge the vibrating air and the fluid on the other side.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAnatomy, Head and Neck: Middle Ear, StatPearlsPublished
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