3/7/2017 Structure and Functions of the Ear Explicated With Diagrams

Structure and Functions of the Ear Explicated

With Diagrams
The ear is another extraordinary organ of the house of wonders, that is, the human body. The
ear catches sound waves and converts it into impulses, that the brain interprets, making it
understandable and helps the human body di erentiate between di erent sounds.
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The ear captures sound and helps you recall that sound throughout your life. The ear
helps the body respond emotionally, according to the sound heard, like emotions of love
on hearing the sound of a loved one, emotions of fear on hearing a threat or a gunshot!

The human body is a marvel of nature and each and every large or tiny organ has a speci c
and important function. There are ve senses of the human body, that help understand and
interpret its surroundings. These ve senses are namely -

â‡' The sense of touch with the help of the largest organ of the human body, the skin
â‡' The sense of smell with the help of the breathing apparatus, the nose
â‡' The sense of taste with the muscle without a bone, the tongue
â‡' The ability to see through the windows of the soul, the eyes

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â‡' The sense of hearing with the help of cartilaginous pair of ears.

Index
Parts of the Ear

Outer Ear
Middle Ear
Inner Ear
Acoustic Nerve
Central Auditory Processing Centers

Functions of the Ear

Balancing Function of the Ear
How the Human Ear Works
Audible Sound Range

From the sweet chirping of the birds to the irritating sounds of crickets, the loud bang of
crackers and the beautiful symphony of an orchestra, all these di erent sounds and many
other sounds are possible to comprehend due to our ears. Majority of the human population
is born with fully developed external and internal ears. Even a fetus inside its mother's womb
is able to hear all the sounds that are loud. Are you wondering how the human ear functions?
What are the parts and functions of the ear? Well, let us begin understanding the hearing
mechanism by knowing more about the di erent parts and functions of the ear.

Parts of the Human Ear

The human ear is divided into ve parts. These ve parts of human ear, have speci c
functions that help in the process of hearing. The parts of the human ear include:

Outer Ear
Middle Ear
Inner Ear
Acoustic Nerve
Central Auditory Processing Centers

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The Outer Ear

Outer ear is divided into the pinna and the external auditory meatus. The pinna, also
known as the auricle is the external ear part that is located and seen on each side of our
head. It is made up of cartilage and soft tissue. This helps in maintaining a particular ear
shape and remains pliable. The pinna is like a funnel that collects the sound vibrations
from around us and funnels them towards the external auditory meatus.

The external auditory meatus is also called the ear canal. The ear canal helps
understand and determine the source and direction of the sound. It is only ¼ inch in
diameter and extends from the pinna to the tympanic membrane. The tympanic
membrane is commonly called the eardrum. Skin and hair cover the outer ear canal
foundation and the cerumen gland or the wax gland is present in this area. The ear canal
develops into a bony structure tightly covered by skin, near the eardrum.

Fact File: The eardrum is an extremely sensitive organ. It can detect the sounds with an
intensity range of approximately 100,000,000 to 1. When the softest sound hits the eardrum,
it moves about one-millionth of an inch and this vibration is transferred to the inner ear for
further processing within the brain.

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The Middle Ear

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The middle ear is the structure that begins at the end of the tympanic membrane. There
are three tiny bones known as the ossicles that make up the middle ear. These bones
connect the eardrum to the inner ear. Sound waves funneled in through the pinna, hit
the eardrum. This causes the eardrum to move back and forth, in other words, vibrate,
causing the ossicles to move. This causes the sound waves to convert into mechanical
vibration.

The three tiny bones forming the ossicles are malleus, incus and stapes. The malleus also
known as the hammer is connected to the eardrum on one side and the incus, known as
the anvil on the other side. The anvil is connected to the third bone stapes, also called
the stirrup. The sound waves converted into mechanical energy are transferred through
this ossicular chain. There is an in and out movement at the stirrup base known as the
stapes footplate, that matches the incoming sound waves. The beginning of the inner ear
is marked by the oval window that ts in the stapes footplate.

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The middle ear is present in the mastoid section of the temporal bone. The temporal
bone is the skull bone that is present on each side of the head that is lled with air. The
Eustachian tube runs from the middle ear front wall to the back of the nose and
nasopharynx, that is, throat. The function of the ear tube, that is the Eustachian tube is,
to provide ventilation and access to the external air and balance the air pressure on
both sides of the eardrum.

Fact File: When there is a change in air pressure in our ears, we can chew, swallow and even
yawn.

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The Inner Ear

The inner ear houses the sensory organs that help in hearing and maintaining balance.
The part of human ear involved in the function of hearing is the cochlea. Another major
function of the human ear is to maintain balance of the body. The di erent parts of the
human ear that help in balancing are the semicircular canals consisting of the utricle and
the saccule present in the inner ear.

The bony structure that is shaped like a snail and lled with endolymph and perilymph
uid is called the cochlea. The sensory receptor called the Organ of Corti is present inside
the cochlea. It has hair cells and nerve receptors, required for hearing.

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The middle ear movement pushes the mechanical energy in the oval window inside the
cochlea. The tiny hair cells are stimulated due to the force that moves the uids inside
the cochlea. Pitches or the speci c sound frequencies stimulate speci c individual hair
cells in the inner ear. Thus, certain frequencies are responded by certain hair cells. The
hair cells translate signals into nerve impulses. The cochlear portion of the VIII cranial
nerve, the acoustic nerve, transmits the nerve impulses to the brain.

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The Acoustic Nerve

The acoustic nerve is the part of human ear that transmits impulses from the cochlea to
the mid brain region, the cochlear nucleus, and further on to other pathways in the brain,
that end in the auditory cortex of the brain. The nerve bers of each ear are divided into
two pathways from the cochlear nucleus. Of these two pathways, one ascends towards
the auditory cortex in one hemisphere of the brain and the other crosses over and
ascends to the other hemisphere of the brain. Thus, the function of the human ear
nerve bers pathway is to transmit data or information received from both ears to both
the hemispheres of the brain.

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The Central Auditory System

The central auditory system function of human ear is to process auditory information
carried to the brain. The central auditory system plays a role in the following functions of
human ear:

The localization and lateralization of the sound

Di erentiating between the di erent sounds
Temporal resolution, masking, integration, and ordering
Reducing the auditory performance when there are competing acoustic signals
Reducing the auditory performance when there is a presence of degraded acoustic
signal

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Functions of the Ear

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Functions of the Ear

We have understood the di erent parts of a human ear and got an overview of their
functions. Now, let us have a look at the functions of the ear, in a little detail.

The pinna and the ear canal deliver the sound waves to the middle ear. Foreign bodies
like insects, dust, etc., are prevented from gaining entry into the ear due to the presence
of wax and hair in this region. This helps in preventing many ear infections.
The eardrum vibrates according to the frequency and the amplitude of sounds that
strike it.
The middle ear function of human ear is to transmit and amplify the sounds vibrated
from the eardrum towards the oval window. It also acts as a dampener to loud sounds
that may damage the cochlea.
The round window is a exible membrane present at the opposite end of the uid lled
channels from the oval window. The round window function of human ear is to keep the
cochlear uids contained within the scala vestibuli and scala tympani. It also functions
as a multiplier of the sound waves generated from the oval window membrane.
The malleus transmits sound vibrations from the eardrums to the incus.
The incus transmits the sound vibrations to the stapes.
The stapes transmit the vibrations to the membrane of the inner ear present inside the
fenestra ovalis.
The semicircular canals function is to maintain the balance by responding to gravity
and the acceleration changes of the head.
The mastoid bone acts as an ampli er of certain sounds that are in the low-frequency
range.
The cochlea, the actual organ that helps in hearing functions as a sound wave
interpreter and converter.

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Parts and Functions of the Ear Involved in Balancing

The sense of equilibrium is controlled by the vestibular system. This system is present in the
inner ear. The temporal bone space is shared between the vestibular and the cochlea. The
uids present in the cochlea are present in the vestibular. In order to maintain balance and
equilibrium when standing, sitting, running, walking etc., in relation to gravity without falling
over, is taken care by the vestibular system. Many other systems like vision, muscle response,
help the vestibular system in performing its balancing function e ectively.
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The utricle and the saccule of the semicircular canals lie in anatomically di erent planes.
These planes lie at a right angle to each other. These planes each have a speci c function that
deals with movement, that is, up and down, side to side, and tilting from one side to the other
side. These canals contain sensory hair cells and are activated by the movement of the
endolymph uid. When the head tilts to one side, the sensory hair cells send a nerve impulse
to the brain with the help of acoustic nerve. The uid in the semicircular canal acts on calcium
carbonate crystals (CaCO3). These crystals shift on their sensory hair beds at the base of the
utriculus and the sacculus. These impulses are stimulated by the crystals present and are
processed in the brain stem and the cerebellum area, in relation to the position of the head
with gravity.

Fact File: When the calcium carbonate crystals break o from their hair beds, they oat within the
vestibular labyrinth. These oating crystals cause serious balance and vertigo problems.

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How the Human Ear Functions

You can see in the diagram that the external ear captures the traveling sound waves. The
sound waves enter through the pinna into the ear canal. Through the ear canal the sound
waves reach the eardrum. These sound waves cause vibrations of the eardrum that are
passed on to the middle ear. The three tiny bones in the middle ear pass the vibrations over
to the inner ear. The stapes deliver the sound waves to the cochlea through the round
window of the outer part of the inner ear, called the bony labyrinth. These vibrations cause
the perilymph uid present in the cochlea to vibrate. These vibrations are picked up by the
sensory hair cells, that translate it into nerve impulses and deliver it to the auditory nerve
present at the base of cochlea. The VIII cranial nerve carries the messages to the brain, where
it is read and translated into meaningful sounds.

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Sound Range Heard by a Human Ear

A human ear can detect sounds that are in the range of frequency between 16 Hertz to 16384
Hertz. The following table will give you an idea of the various sound decibels that help human
beings perceive di erent sounds.

Decibels Perception of Sound

0 dB The lowest sound that can be heard by a healthy ear of an 18-year-old.

20 dB Very soft whisper

45 dB Softly spoken voice

60 dB An average voice spoken

70 dB A loud shout

80 dB A loud motorbike that is driven on a narrow street

90 dB Lawn mower

100-120 dB Heavy metal rock concert

120-140 dB A jet engine within a range of 250 yards

Fact File: A dog can hear sounds ranging from 67 Hz to 45000 Hz. This helps it hear a dog whistle
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which even humans can't hear. A bat can hear up to 110000 Hz that helps it in echolocation,
enabling it to y through pitch black nights! People living on country sides have been away from
loud noises of machinery and other loud sounds, have been known to be able to hear the random
motion of air molecules, that bounce against their eardrums!

Ear is a very sensitive organ and needs to be protected from damage. Never ever use pins or
pencil points etc., to clean your ears. Use cotton ear buds for cleaning ears, or you can end up
damaging your eardrums. Stay away from loud sounds and if you work around heavy
machinery that creates a lot of sound, make sure you wear ear plugs to protect the sensitive
eardrum. If the eardrum is damaged it may result in hearing loss.

Our ears help us understand the words of people around us, enjoy music, hear our children
laugh, and even help us hear ourselves. Thus, make sure you stay away from sounds that
damage hearing and do not make loud sounds that may damage someone else's sense of
hearing. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then ears are the doors to the mind. Without
ears, you will plunge into the dark world of silence.

 Batul Na sa Baxamusa  Last Updated: September 15, 2016

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