LING330: Quiz #2 Flashcards
Outer ear (aka auricle)
Consists of:
1- pinna (visible shell of the ear)
2- tympanic membrane (ear canal leading down the eardrum)
Function of the pinna
Shell of the ear
Captures sound waves
Aids in localization
Function of ear canal
Keep eardrums safely inside our heads (shielded from changes in temp and humidity, and sharp objects)
Acts as a resonator (amplifies sounds especially in 3000hz range, crucial frequency area for speech sounds)
Why do we have two ears?
Locate sounds in space
Keep track of source of sound in a noisy enviro
Why is there a delay in time and intensity when a sound reaches one ear and the other?
Because they’re separated by a heads width and decrease in intensity is bc “shadow” of the head
How does the brain interpret location of sound source?
Sounds echo in folds of pinna in characteristic ways (depending on where sound is coming from)
Interpreted into diffs in phase, intensity, and frequency
Further used to determine location of source
Middle ear
Consists of:
1- eardrum (aka tympanic membrane)
2- ossicles (three tiny bones)
What are the three ossicles?
1- malleus (touches tympanic membrane; transmits movement to incus)
2- incus (transmits movements to stapes)
3- stapes (transmits movements to oval window and liquid of inner ear)
**hammer, anvil, stirrup
Function of ossicles
Connects the eardrum to a second membrane (the oval window of the inner ear)
Transfers sound patterns from one membrane to the other (minimizes reflection of energy, amplifies soft sounds, protects inner ear from very loud sounds)
Describe what happens when sound waves travel down the ear canal
1- hit the eardrum
2- eardrum vibrates (mimicking vibration patterns in the sound wave)
**vibration maximized when air pressure on both sides of eardrum is equal (middle ear=air-filled chamber)
How is pressure equalization achieved in the middle ear?
Normal circumstances: Eustachian tube creates passageway between middle ear and the mouth (and thus the outside world)
Abnormal circumstances (ex: tube blocked by infection): pressure builds up in middle ear and causes an earache
How can you “pop” your ears?
Swallowing/chewing gum activates muscles around Eustachian tube
Can induce exchange of air and release of pressure (aka ears popping)
Extreme pressure differences cause what?
Tympanic membrane to rupture
Three parts of the ear
Outer
Middle
Inner
How is energy transferred in ear?
Eardrum to malleus to incus to stapes to oval window (force increased at each step which amplifies the sound energy)
Describe the middle ear reflex
Process that can impede the transfer of energy in very loud sounds
Involuntary contraction of muscles attached to the ossicles (stapedius and tensor tympani) in response to any sound above 80 decibels
Muscle contraction = bones pulled away from membranes
Damps vibrations
Protects oval window from being overly displaced
Protection is only partial so damage is still possible
Smallest muscle in the body
Stapedius
What is the inner ear encased in?
Temporal bone
Aka thickest part of the skull
Two connected parts of inner ear
Vestibular system (for balance) Cochlea (for hearing)
Vestibular system of the inner ear
- three semicircular canals (loops orientated in diff planes at right angles to each other that sense motion in three dimensions)
- utricle + sacchule (sense horizontal and vertical acceleration)
- *both lined with tiny hairs (cilia) and filled with fluid I
How does the inner ear maintain balance, fix the gaze and coordinate body motion?
- inner ear organs filled with fluid and lined with tiny hairs called cilia
- cilia attached to nerve fibers
- head moves = motion of fluid makes hairs bend
- triggers nerves to fire
- brain interprets patterns of activation as movement and orientation of the body in space
Otoliths
Small crystals of calcium carbonate floating in the fluid in the utricle and saccule which further stimulate the cilia
Cochlea
Coiled tube like a snail shell
No bigger than a marble
Divided lengthwise into three parts (scalae):
1- scala vestibuli (on top)
2- scala tympani (on the bottom)
3- scala media (aka cochlear duct; in the middle)
End of cochlea adjacent to middle ear=basal end
Far end of cochlea=apex
Filled with lymphatic fluid
Helicotrema=at the apex of cochlea; connects scala vestibuli and scala tympani
The path of sound that leads to hearing
- sound vibrations pass through the eardrum
- pass ossicles
- end up at oval window
- oval window vibrates causing complex pressure waves to move thru lymphatic fluid in the cochlea
- waves move up scala vestibuli
- around helicotrema
- down scala tympani
- at basal end of scala tympani=membrane called round window
- round window expands and contracts as sound waves impact it (acting as a pressure release valve)
- pressure waves move thru cochlea
- cochlear duct becomes deformed
- deformation=hearing !!!