Introduction
The ear is an integral part of the mammalian body, and a fundamental aspect of communication. It plays a pivotal role in detecting and responding to stimuli within the environment. The main function of the ear is to pick up sound waves in the environment. Mammals utilise ears for many various aspects including hearing, balance and communication. Ears are essential for survival, as they allow for the detection of sound, hence allowing mammals to communicate and respond to danger in the environment. The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The ear functions by collecting sound waves in the external auditory canal, from where it subsequently travels through the middle and inner ear until it reaches the brain to be interpreted as sound. Different mammals have a different range of frequency that they are able to hear. In the past century, technologies such as hearing aids and cochlea implants have assisted people who have hearing difficulties to hear, or have had their sense of hearing damaged.
Structure and Function of the Mammalian Ear
Sound travels in the form of waves through gases, liquids, and solids, by vibrating surrounding particles in the environment. The function of the mammalian ear is to collect these vibrations and process them to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound. The ear is very important as it enables animals and humans to hunt prey (animals), avoid danger and communicate. The ear has specific structures that enable them to carry out this task. The ear is divided into three sections; external, middle, and inner portions. (Refer to Diagram 1 in the appendix for a complete and detailed diagram of the ear.)
The outer ear consists of the ...
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...uch as grasshoppers contain a tympanic membrane on their abdomen and legs. This is usually stretched over an air chamber and vibrates when sound waves strike it, and relays the nerve impulse to the brain. Many insects such as the grasshopper have hearing in the ultrasonic range. Fish on the other hand use their lateral line to detect vibrations. It works similar to that of a mammalian ear, with vibrations being detected, passed onto the brain via nerve impulses and sensory cells, but contains no ossicles or cochlea. The lateral line is also used for detecting of motion through water, direction of current and the pressure weave created by the presence of other objects nearby. Fish also have an inner ear, which can detect high pitch sounds. Generally, fish have a frequency range of 100-1000 Hz. (Refer to image 7 in the appendix for a diagram of the lateral line)
This may happen unconsciously, as is usually the case with soft background noise such as the whoosh of air through heating ducts or the distant murmur of an electric clothes dryer. Sometimes hearing is done semi-consciously; for instance, the roar of a piece of construction equipment might momentarily draw one's attention. Conscious hearing, or listening, involves a nearly full degree of mental concentration. A familiar instance in which listening takes place would be a casual conversation with a friend or colleague. In such cases, the sound waves entering the ear are transferred to the brain, which then
The next speaker, Dr. Gottlieb investigated the hearing aspect of our senses. He investigated the interaction between our heari...
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,
An amount of people tried to invent the hearing aid. One of those people was Frederick C. Rein, Frederick invented the ear trumpet.The ear
From this point, vibration of the connective membrane (oval window) transforms mechanical motion into a pressure wave in fluid. This pressure wave enters and hence passes vibrations into the fluid filled structure called the cochlea. The cochlea contains two membranes and between these two membranes, are specialized neurons or receptors called hair cells. Once vibrations enter the cochlea, they cause the lower membrane (basilar membrane) to move in respect to the upper membrane (i.e. the tectorial membrane in which the hair cells are embedded). This movement bends the hair cells to cause receptor potentials in these cells which in turn cause the release of transmitter onto the neurons of the auditory nerve.
We hear sound because circulating conflicts cause the eardrum to vibrate, and feelings are transferred to the acoustic nerve through the fluid and bones of the ear. For example loudness is a relative term. One sound decreases source. As the sound is propagated outward, it is “spread” over a greater area. The minimum sound intensity that can be detected by the human ear...
Auditory localization is the ability to recognize the location from which a sound is emanating (Goldstine, 2002). There are many practical reasons for studying auditory localization. For example, previous research states that visual cues are necessary in locating a particular sound (Culling, 2000). However, blind people do not have the luxury of sight to help them locate a sound. Therefore, the ability to locate sound based only on auditory ability is important. It is also important to study different auditory processes. For example, when studying a way for a blind person to maneuver through an environment, it is helpful to know that people can most accurately locate sounds that happen directly in front of them; sounds that are far off, to the side, or behind the head are the least likely to be properly located (Goldstein, 2002).
The ear houses some of the most sensitive organs in the body. The physics of sound is well understood, while the mechanics of how the inner ear translates sound waves into neurotransmitters that then communicate to the brain is still incomplete. Because the vestibular labyrinth and the auditory structure are formed very early in the development of the fetus and the fluid pressure contained within both of them is mutually dependant, a disorder in one of the two reciprocating structures affects the (2).
The most unique feature of the platypus is the soft and pliable bill. The bill surface is perforated with openings that contain nerve endings, which allow the animal to locate food and aid movement under water. These pores contain two types of sensory receptors: mechanoreceptors, which respond to tactile pressure, and electroreceptors, which respond to electric fields. The eyes and ear openings are located behind the bill in a muscular groove, which contracts and closes as the platypus dives (Griffiths, 1998). The nostrils are positioned towards the tip of the bill and are slightly elevated upwards to allow breathing whilst the body is beneath the surface (Figure 1).
Ossicles then amplify the sound waves and pass them along the middle ear, where, eventually, fluid carries these waves to auditory receptors that transmit this signal to the auditory nerve and, therefore, the brain (Schacter, Psychology, 2014). The Senses Challenge “challenged” the perception of the perception of sound through a test in which a piano octave is played, except the last note is the same as the first note. The brain expects the scale to be completed, so one thinks that the last note they hear is the last note in the sequence of the scale, not the
Along with vision, hearing is one of the most important senses that humans have. We use it to communicate, learn, and stay aware of our environment. In fact, hearing is the only sense that never stops receiving sensory input. While all of our other senses become drastically less sensitive when we are sleeping, our brain still processes auditory information to awaken us the second something is wrong. Although this may have been more practically used before people slept safely in homes, it’s still useful for hearing a fire alarm or our alarm clock in the morning. We are able to hear by processing sound waves. This energy travels through the delicate structures in our ears to be transformed into neural activity so that we can perceive the sensory information we receive (Myers, 2010).
The sensory system’s organs are the sense organs of the body. The purpose of the sensory system is to allow us to experience outside stimuli and identify alterations in the environment by sensory receptors and eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin, which are the sensory organs. The sensory system is actually one of the main elements of the body used to process sensory information.
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.
Speaking of how the human ear receives music, sound is produced by vibrations that transmits energy into sound waves, a form of energy in which human ears can respond to and hear. Specifically, there are two different types of sound waves. The more common of the two are the transversal waves, which ...