How the Sensory Organs Function

When a person with normal hearing hears the sound travels along the ear then bounces against the ear drum. The eardrum, the bones inside, and the cochlea vibrate and move thousands of tiny hairs inside the ear. When these hairs move an electrical response occurs. This electrical response goes to the hearing nerve and then it is send to the brain.

The ear is an extraordinary human organ that many people take for granted until it doesn’t function. It is the only device that allows the human to hear sounds in their environment. The ear is made up of many parts that distinguish various sounds through different means. The ear anatomy and physiology along with how sound waves are transmitted into meaningful sounds will help one understand how hearing loss occurs.

The physiology of hearing starts with a vibration that occurs in the air which sends an acoustic signal to the ear drum. The signal is transduced into a mechanical signal that transmits through the inner ear and the cochlear nerve. Finally, the signal is

The middle ear has three ossicles (tiny bones) the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup that connect the middle ear to the inner ear. When sound enters your middle ear, it causes the ossicles to vibrate. These vibrations then move into the cochlea, which is filled with fluid. When the vibrations move the fluid that is in the cochlea, it stimulates tiny hair cells that respond to different frequencies of sound. After the tiny hair cells are stimulated, they direct the frequencies of sound into the auditory nerve, as nerve impulses. (ASHA 2013)

The ear is made up of three parts, the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The ability to hear is dependent on these three parts of the ear working together, and a problem with any part can cause hearing loss (heaing loss education centre, 2012). The inner ear consists of the cochlea, the auditory hearing nerve and the brain. These are the organs of hearing and balance and convert sound waves into nerve signals. These signals are sent to the brain using a nerve called the vestibulocochlear nerve. Nerve deafness occurs if there is damage to the inner ear and although it is possible to regain some hearing through the help of a hearing device, nerve deafness is often permanent. (deaf websites, 2013)

Though our sensory organs may be working fine, environmental influences may distort our interpretation of the data the organ is sending to us. For example, we could look down a street and not see anyone and think it is safe to walk down that street, but someone could be behind a tree or other object. We do not always interpret sensory data correctly no matter what sensory organ we are using. That is the most important reason we should be aware that we may not always rely on sensory information. Our senses are who we are, without them we are left to isolation and our ability to think and learn due to lack of experience. Senses are our connection from the physical world into the realm of our mind. “There is nothing in the mind unless it is first in the senses” (Kirby &

Sound is a very interesting topic that many people do not fully understand. There are lots of questions on why or why not we can hear certain things and how do we process different sounds and vibrations. The first thing that is important to know before getting into all the details is that sound is release of energy and the energy is released in the form of vibrations. Then , the vibrations will emit from whatever has made the sound in what is known as a longitudinal wave. A longitudinal wave is a wave that travels in a sing direction.

How Outside Stimuli are affected by the Five SensesAP1 ProjectShelby HardenSo, many things use the 5 senses. Each sense controls something different. Without having one of the five senses, can turn your whole life around. Treasure them all. Each function provokes every step you take in life. Outside stimuli can be received by the five senses which are sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Sight is very important to everyday life. Light waves off an object is what lets us see. The brain connects the light wave to memories or what it might be associated with, which then allows us to precept what the object is. This process happens so fast, you never see it coming. The stimuli you get from seeing is the colors the make an object and projects feelings. Sound is precious.

The ear is made up of three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear is responsible for collecting the sound wave, the middle ear increases the sound energy and transmits the sound to the inner ear and finally the inner ear transforms the sound waves into nerve impulses and sends them to the brain. When the sound wave passes the ear canal there is a vibration in the eardrum which affects 3

Sensory processing develops naturally and is done without effort (What is, n.d., para 2). The brain’s “ability to process and organize sensations begins to emerge in the womb and continues into adolescence” (Bolles, 2001). “The human body takes in sensory input from several different sensory systems, organizes it in the brain for functional use, and then sends out signals to the rest of the body to activate” adaptive response (An Introduction, 2014). There are eight sensory systems found in the human body (SPD, n.d, para 1). Five of the eight sensory systems are known as the

There are five common senses that are discussed and learned from an early age: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. The I-function, the conscious part of the brain, is very aware of these senses. It voluntarily checks information obtained by these senses in order to experience the environment, and also when a strong enough stimuli has signaled attention to these specific receptors. There are other equally important sensory systems set up that are essential for normal body functioning, but these are not so easily recognized by the I-function because the nervous system keeps the input unconscious.

Humans have five means of sensing information, which are hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and seeing (Breedlove & Watson, 2013). All incoming information is sensed in a similar way for each of the five modalities. The sensory receptor organs filter the information that we come into contact with by deciding which information to pay attention to and which information to ignore. The event that activates the sensory organ is referred to as a stimulus; hence, feeling a finger on your arm, hearing music, or seeing an object are all referred to as stimuli. Additionally, we have receptor cells within or sensory organs, the receptor cells perceive specific types of simulation and convert the sensed stimuli

The ears are one of the most complex and interesting systems thats human body has and the sounds we hear are actually in many different parts deflected, absorbed, and also filtered by our different body parts. It's then collected by our pinnae (the external part of or ears), whose dimensions further affect the sound on its way into ear. There, vibrations are translated into signals, which are interpreted by your brain. In the 1930s, two scientists at Bell Labs, Harvey Fletcher and Wilden A. Munson researched this process and what they discovered has changed and affected how we as humans understand the hearing process.