Ear Parts Flashcards
Pinna
The shell-shaped structure surrounding the auditory canal opening.
External acoustic meatus
Short, narrow chamber carved into the temporal bone.
Eardrum
Vibrates from sound waves, passed vibrations.
Middle ear
Small, air-filled cavity within the temporal bone.
Pharyngotympanic tube
Equalizes pressure.
Ossicles
3 smallest vines in the body; transmit vibrations from the eardrum.
Malleus (hammer)
Moved with the eardrum.
Anvil (incus)
Passed vibrations from malleus to stapes.
Stapes (stirrup)
Pressed on the oval window.
Inner ear
Includes sense organs for hearing and balance.
Mechanoreceptors
Hair cells (sense hearing).
Cochlea
Stapes transmits vibrations, perilymph fluid moves, bends hair cells.
Vestibule
Balance; located between the semicircular canals and the cochlea.
Semicircular canals
Houses the dynamic equilibrium receptors to respond to angular rotary head movements.
Static equilibrium
Help with the orientation of the head.
Dynamic equilibrium
Respond to angular and rotary movements of the head.
Vestibulocochlear nerve
Takes information to the brain.
Sensorineural deafness
Damage to receptor cells in cochlea.
Conduction deafness
Something interferes with vibrations in the ear.
Chemoreceptors
Receptors for taste and olfaction (smell); respond to chemicals dissolved in solution.
Olfactory receptors
Receptors for sense of smell.
Outer ear
Composed of the pinna and the external acoustic meatus
