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Anatomy of the Ear

The car is an ingenious creation designed to transfer sound waves from the environment to the brain in an efficient way in the smallest amount of space. In the videotape entitled "Beethoven: Triumph over Silence, Dr. Victor Goodhill (2005) described the ear as both an analytic microphone and a microcomputer, sending sound impulses to the brain Anatomically it is divided into 4 sections: the external car, middle car. inner car, and the transmission pathway to the hearing center in the brain.

To hear normally the whole of the car, and the nerve, and the nerve pathways to the brain, have to be intact and m good order. If any part of this chain is obstructed or defective, a hearing will not be normal. The ear is divided into three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. 

The External/Outer Ear

The outer ear consists of that part of the car outside the head, the auricle, and the canal which leads up to the car drum. more correctly called the tympanic membrane. The auricle collects the sound waves which pass up the canal and cause the tympanic membrane to vibrate. Inside the canal are glands, which secrete wax. If too much wax accumulates, it can block the canal and thereby interfere with the process of hearing The Middle Ear

The middle ear is a small cavity that is filled with air. In the middle ear are three bones between the eardrum and a window in the bone which separates the middle ear and the inner ear. The three bones are the malleus. (hammer), the incurs (anvil) and the stapes (stirrup). The stapes fit closely into the oval window The eardrum separates the external auditory canal from the middle ear The middle ear is an air-filled space within the temporal bone and is connected with the eustachian tube, back of the nose, and with the cell of the mastoid.

The sound enters the middle ear through the center, which is the most sensitive area of the eardrum which starts vibrating in response to the faintest sound. As the sound pressure increases, the vibration increases in a circular pattern, much like the pattern on the water when a rock is thrown in. These vibrations are transmitted to the hammer, through the anvil, and to the stirrup, thus transmitting airborne acoustic energy to the fluid of the inner ear. Because the surface area of the eardrum is large (about 85 sq mm) and the surface area of the base of the stirrup is so small (about 3.2 sq mm), the pressure increases approximately 17 times as a result of differences in areas.

It is important to realize that the middle ear must be filled with air, not fluid, and the three ear bones, with their muscles, must work easily together as a unit. Any limitation of motion (impedance) will not transmit the original sound resulting in a loss of hearing.

The Inner Ear

The inner ear is a capsule of very dense bone containing a fluid that communicates with the middle ear via the oval window on the stapes end, and the round window is covered by the round-window membrane at the end of the unrolled cochlea. When the sound energy reaches this point it is transformed into hydraulic energy at the base and rolled into a spiral of 2.5 turns which becomes smaller toward the top