The Auditory System THE CAPABILITY FOR HUMANS TO HEAR

Auditory System  The auditory or peripheral auditory system is one of the five sensory systems in the human body.  The process of hearing is called auditory transduction.  The auditory system is straightly connected to the nervous system which will make the sounds that are heard get directly signaled to the brain.  The exterior organ that takes in sound waves is the ear  The ear consist of 3 parts. A. Outer Ear B. Middle Ear C. Inner Ear

A. Outer Ear  The outer ear or pinna is the exterior part of the auditory system.  Pinna – is the exterior cartilage folding of the ear canal where sound waves bounce off and enter the ear canal.  Ear Canal – is the tube the connects the pinna and to the eardrum and amplifies the original sound waves from 3 to 12 Hz and where sound waves travel to the eardrum

B. Middle Ear  When the sound waves continue to through the ear canal it will hit the tympanic membrane or the eardrum.  Eardrum – is the membrane where sound waves hit and begins to vibrate and where the sound waves hit three structural bones and vibrates a small membrane oval window 1. Malleus (Hammer) 2. Incus (Anvil) 3. Stapes (Stirrup)  The sound’s low air pressure is getting converted to high air pressure when passing through the bones.  The stapes is where the sound waves

C. Inner Ear  The inner ear consist of the bony labyrinth.  Bony labyrinth – is rigid outer wall filled with a liquid (perilymph)in the inner ear where sound waves are converted to readable pulse for the brain.  The cochlea - is a spiraled shaped organ where vibrations in perilymph get’s converted to electrical pulses in the organ of corti.  Organ of Corti – is a specialized structure that’s in the inner ear which contains special hair cells or nerve receptors that take the vibrations and the movement of the organ of corti and convert it to electrical pulses

Central Auditory System  The central auditory system is where all of the electrical pulses from the inner ear is transferred to the nervous system.  This where very high leveled auditory functions take place on interpretations of voices, recognizing languages, recognizing speaker, and etc.

Disease and Disorders  The most common disease in the auditory system is hearing loss.  The cause of hearing loss is the having frequent infections in the middle ear. The infections will continuously damage the nerves in the middle ear that transmit the vibrations that transfer to the inner ear.  A very common issue in the middle ear is having the eardrum getting pierced through. This will cause ear infections and if constantly pierced can also lead to hearing loss

Bibliography Video: Auditory Transduction. Youtube. Web. Aug 26,2009, Website: Auditory System. Wikipedia. Web. April 11, 2013, Book: Campbell Reece. Biology. Pearson, Benjamin, Cummings; 7th edition (January 1, 2005)