Did you hear something ? Maybe the sound you heard was as quiet as your cat licking her paws. Or maybe it was loud, like a siren going by. Sounds are everywhere, and you have two cool parts on your body that let you hear them all: your ears!
Your ears are in charge of collecting sounds, processing them, and sending sound signals to your brain. And that's not all your ears also help you keep your balance. So if you bend over to pick up your cat, you won't fall down or even worse fall on your cat. Meow !
The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. These parts all work together so you can hear and process sounds.
The Outer Ear : Catch the Wave
The outer ear is called the pinna or auricle (say: or-ih-kul). This is the part of the ear that people can see. It's what people pierce to wear earrings and what your friend whispers into when it's time for a secret. The main job of the outer ear is to collect sounds, whether they're your friend's whispers or a barking dog.
The outer ear also includes the ear canal, where wax is produced. Earwax is that gunky stuff that protects the canal. Earwax contains chemicals that fight off infections that could hurt the skin inside the ear canal. It also collects dirt to help keep the ear canal clean. So earwax isn't just gross. It's gross and useful.
The Middle Ear : Good Vibrations
After sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and make their way to the middle ear. The middle ear's main job is to take those sound waves and turn them into vibrations that are delivered to the inner ear. To do this, it needs the eardrum, which is a thin piece of skin stretched tight like a drum.
The eardrum separates the outer ear from the middle ear and the ossicles (say: ah-sih-kulz). What are ossicles ? They are the three tiniest, most delicate bones in your body. They include :
- the malleus (say: mah-lee-us), which is attached to the eardrum and means "hammer" in Latin
- the incus (say: in-kus), which is attached to the malleus and means "anvil" in Latin
- the stapes (say: stay-peez), the smallest bone in the body, which is attached to the incus and means "stirrup" in Latin
When sound waves reach the eardrum, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. When the eardrum vibrates, it moves the tiny ossicles from the hammer to the anvil and then to the stirrup. These bones help sound move along on its journey into the inner ear.
The Inner Ear : Nerve Signals Start Here
Sound comes into the inner ear as vibrations and enters the cochlea (say: ko-klee-uh), a small, curled tube in the inner ear. The cochlea is filled with liquid, which is set into motion, like a wave, when the ossicles vibrate.
The cochlea is also lined with tiny cells covered in tiny hairs that are so small you would need a microscope to see them. They may be small, but they're awfully important. When sound reaches the cochlea, the vibrations (sound) cause the hairs on the cells to move, creating nerve signals that the brain understands as sound. The brain puts it together and hooray! You hear your favorite song on the radio.
By Robert C. O'Reilly, MD
The above information thankfully comes from the Mayo Clinic.com at the following link.