The Amazing Ear
“How do we hear sounds? Do I have a hearing loss, if so, how does it affect me compared to someone with normal hearing?” are just a few of the many questions individuals ask when they are told they have a hearing loss. The ear structures are a very complex organ of the human body. There are many mechanisms involved, starting with a sound wave entering the air-filled ear canal, vibrating through the eardrum, traveling its way through the fluid of the cochlea and finally, neurons sending a message all the way to the brain to be processed.
When someone has a hearing loss, one or multiple mechanisms are damaged or absent that it causes a reduction in the sound quality and the ability to understand speech. There are several different pathologies that cause a hearing loss and each person is very different in how it affects him or her.
What is a Sound?
Take a second and listen to the sounds you hear around you. What do you hear? A door opening and closing, a couple having an argument about what is for dinner, a baby crying? All of these sounds are produced by vibrations in varies frequencies that move through space in the form of a sound wave. These vibrations move air molecules in a ripple form like a rock is thrown into a puddle.
Now think about the different pitches you are hearing. Sound waves have varies different shapes and sizes depending on the frequency of the source. What happens when you throw two different rocks that vary in size into the puddle? You get two totally different ripples, right? This is what happens with frequencies. Big rocks or low frequencies create large ripples, and small rocks or high frequencies create small ripples. These frequencies can range from 20 to 20,000 hertz. The most important...
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...s length, shape, hard walls, hair follicles, and cerumen (wax) glands are known to protect the eardrum from any damages that can happen. The ear canal has two bends in the length that will not allow anything to tamper the eardrum on direct impact. The hair follicles and wax glands is the ear canal’s way of cleaning its self. It is not recommended to use a Q-Tip for example to clean out your ears. In time, the hair follicles will push the wax out naturally along with dirt, dead skin or any other unwanted products.
Works Cited
Harris, Tom. "How Hearing Works" 30 March 2001. HowStuffWorks.com. Web. 14 December 2013.
“Types, Causes, and Treatment” Hearing Loss Association of America. Web. 14 December 2013.
Vetter,Douglas. “How do the Hammer, Avil, and Stirrup Bones Amplify Sound into the Inner Ear?” 31 January 2008. Scientific American. Web. 14 December 2013.
Hearing allows us to take in noises from the surrounding environment and gives us a sense of where things are in relation to us. All those little folds on the outside of the ear, called the tonotopic organization, make it so sound waves in the air are directed to the ear canal, where they can be further processed. Once in the ear, the sound waves vibrate the ear drum, which tell the ear exactly what frequency it is sensing. The vibration of the ear drum is not quite enough to send a signal to the brain, so it needs to be amplified, which is where the three tiny bones in the ear come into play. The malleus or hammer, incus or anvil, and stapes or stirrup amplify this sound and send it to the cochlea. The cochlea conducts the sound signal through a fluid with a higher inertia than air, so this is why the signal from the ear drum needs to be amplified. It is much harder to move the fluid than it is to move the air. The cochlea basically takes these physical vibrations and turns them into electrical impulses that can be sent to the brain. This is...
Sound is localised to the ear by the pinna, travelling down the auditory canal, vibrating the eardrum. The eardrums vibrations are then passed down through the ossicles, three small bones known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup that then transfer the vibrations to the oval window of the cochlea. The cochlea is filled with fluid that when exposed to these vibrations stimulate the sterocilia. This small hair cells "wiggle" along to certain frequencies transferring the vibrations into electrical impulses that are then sent to the brain. If the ear is exposed to noise levels of too high an intensity the sterocilia are overstimulated and many become permanently damaged . (Sliwinska-Kowalska et. All,
If you put your finger gently on a loudspeaker you will feel it vibrate - if it is playing a low note loudly you can see it moving. When it moves forwards, it compresses the air next to it, which raises its pressure. Some of this air flows outwards, compressing the next layer of air. The disturbance in the air spreads out as a travelling sound wave. Ultimately this sound wave causes a very tiny vibration in your eardrum - but that's another story.
A hearing loss can present many obstacles in one's life. I have faced many issues throughout my life, many of which affected me deeply. When I first realized that I was hearing-impaired, I didn't know what it meant. As I grew older, I came to understand why I was different from everyone. It was hard to like myself or feel good about myself because I was often teased. However, I started to change my attitude and see that wearing hearing aids was no different than people wearing glasses to see.
Here, three small bones, the ossicles, vibrate in succession to produce a unique pattern of movements that embodies the frequencies contained in every sound we are capable of hearing. The middle ear is also an important component in what music we actually keep out of our head. The muscles grasping the ossicles can contract to prevent as much as two thirds of the sound from entering the inner ear. (1, 2) The mechanical motions of the ossicles directly vibrate a small membrane that connects to the fluid-filled inner ear.
Hearing loss is a major global public health issue. Hearnet (2017) defines hearing loss as “a disability that occurs when one or more parts of the ear and/or the parts of the brain that make up the hearing pathway do not function normally” (para. 1). There are many different types of hearing loss, which can have multiple causes, giving each individual experiencing the issue a unique hearing loss case. These types include Auditory Processing Disorders, when the brain has problems processing sound information; Conductive Hearing Loss, a problem with the outer or middle ear which prevents sound making its way to the inner ear; and Sensorineural Hearing Loss, when the Cochlea or auditory nerve is damaged and cannot
Hearing loss and/or hearing impairment occurs when there is an issue with one or more parts of the ear. Someone who has hearing loss may be able to hear some sounds or nothing at all. About 3 in 1,000 babies are born with hearing impairment, making it the most common birth defect (Morlet 2012). There are ways to determine if your child has a hearing impairment at birth, not to prevent your child from having a hearing impairment, but to determine if there is a possibility that your child may have the most common birth defect. Newborn hearing screening focuses on identifying hearing loss early (Listen 2013). In other words, if a newborn were to get a hearing screening shortly after birth, then there would be less percussions than if the parents waited to get a hearing test later on.
The current hypothesis is that one of my genes is a mutated gene, that mutated gene is what is causing my hearing loss. If this is the real reason why I have hearing loss, there is also worry for what other problems does this mutated gene cause. With finding a mutated gene, they will most likely be able to predict how much worse my hearing will get. Another possible but not likely cause is a tumor, currently, I have to get an MRI to make sure that there is no growth inside of my head. If there is a growth, that will lead to some serious issues. The last possible cause is that loud noises have damaged my hearing, but it is even more less likely than a tumor. I am almost never exposed to loud music, concerts, or anything of that nature, which would causes hearing loss. Since I've been losing hearing since I was 5, they have practically ruled that one out because it makes no
momentum transfer when air molecules collide. Our ‘subjective impression’ about the frequency of a sound is called pitch. High pitch has high vibration frequency, while low pitch has a low vibration frequency. A pure musical tone consists of a single pitch or frequency. However, most musical tones are “complex summations” of various pure frequencies - one characteristic frequency, called the fundamental, and a series of overtones or harmonics Younger people can usually hear pitches with frequencies from about 20 hertz (infrasonic) to 20,000 (ultrasonic) hertz. We can’t hear above 20,000 hertz or below 20 hertz (ultra and infrasonic waves).
Congenital hearing loss is described as hearing loss that exists at birth. Factors responsible for this condition include those present during pregnancy (such as hereditary factors), as well as factors present after pregnancy. An inherited congenital hearing loss could be conductive, sensorineural, or even a combination of both. The amount or progression of this type of hearing loss varies according to each individual’s case. According to Richard Smith, congenital hearing loss is “syndromic (associated with malformations of the external ear or other organs or with medical problems involving other organ systems) or nonsyndromic (no associated visible abnormalities of the external ear or any related medical problems)…” Over 400 genetic syndromes are associated with congenital hearing loss. These include Treacher Collins, an autosomal dominant disorder and Down syndrome, an x-linked hearing loss. Although congenital hearing loss can be difficult to live with, hearing aids, surgery, and therapy are all available as forms of treatment. Hearing loss must be treated as soon as possible to prevent as many delays in the child’s language development as possible.
In physics, music is essentially a form of energy and is transferred by a wave. There are two basic kinds of waves. The first is a transverse wave where the medium vibrates at a right angle up and down causing the wave to move to the right. A compressional wave (or longitudinal wave) moves to the right and left because the medium vibrates in the same direction. Sound waves take the form of compressional waves and are caused by vibrations. Sound waves are distinguished by their speed, pitch, loudness and quality (timbre) (Lapp, 2003).
Sound is essentially a wave produced by a vibrating source. This compression and rarefaction of matter will transfer to the surrounding particles, for instance air molecules. Rhythmic variations in air pressure are therefore created which are detected by the ear and perceived as sound. The frequency of a sound wave is the number of these oscillations that passes through a given point each second. It is the compression of the medium particles that actually constitute a sound wave, and which classifies it as longitudinal. As opposed to transverse waves (eg. light waves), in which case the particles move perpendicular to the direction of the wave movement, the medium particles are moving in the same or opposite direction as the wave (Russell, D. A., 1998).
The ear is an organ of the body that is used for hearing and balance. It is connected to the brain by the auditory nerve and is composed of three divisions, the external ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The greater part of which is enclosed within the temporal bone.
N.p., 6 Feb. 2007. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. 5-ways-to-improve-your-hearing.html>. "hearing."