Auditory Anatomy: The ear

Question 1

What comprises the middle ear

Answer 1

Ossicles, malleus, incus and stapes

Question 2

What happens at the eardrum?

Answer 2

Waves are amplified and directed to the eardrum causing it to vibrate

Question 3

True or false outer hair cells are responsible for auditory transduction

Answer 3

False (that’s inner hair cells)

Question 4

What are the 3 main auditory areas in the cortex?

Answer 4

Core area - consists of A1, the rostral core, and the rostrotemporal core
Belt area- a tonotopic organisation
Parabelt area- a tonotopic organisation

Question 5

What does the location of the peak of a travelling sound wave depend on?

Answer 5

The frequency of sound

Question 6

What is the frequency range of vibrations of the basilar membrane?

Answer 6

25-1600Hz

Question 7

What is bekesy place theory?

Answer 7

Different frequencies of input maximally stimulate a specific place on the basilar membrane

Question 8

Temporal code for frequency

Answer 8

Place coding can represent pitch for most frequencies but the tuning is fairly broad for the lowest frequencies