The Ear and Hearing Loss
The ear is the organ of hearing and balance in vertebrates. The ear converts sound waves in the air, to nerve impulses which are sent to the brain, where the brain interprets them as sounds instead of vibrations. The innermost part of the ear maintains equilibrium or balance. The vestibular apparatus contains semicircular canals which in turn balance you. Any movement by the head, and this apparatus sends a signal to the brain so that your reflex action is to move your foot to balance you.
The ear in humans consist three parts: The outer, the middle, and the inner portions. The outer ear, or pinna, is the structure that we call the ear.
It is the skin covered flap of elastic
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In conductive hearing loss, sound intensity is reduced, but sound isn't distorted.
Sensorineural hearing loss is more resistant to therapy because it involves damage to the delicate sensory cells of the organ of Corti, which is located in the cochlea. Sensorineural hearing loss has to do with both distortion of sound and loss of sound intensity. The closer the damaged tissue is to the auditory cortex, the more complex and subtle are the types of distortions. The hair cells of the organ of Corti cannot grow once they are damaged. Sensorineural hearing loss is rarely reversible.
The hearing losses caused by salicylates such as asprin and the early stages of Meniere's Disease are reversible, however. The latter condition is characterized by an imbalance of fluid pressures within the inner ear. If this imbalance is correct soon enough, before hair cell destruction has occurred, hearing will return to its normal level. Sensorineural hearing loss is often accompanied by ear noise, or tinnitus, which is a high-pitched ringing heard only by the patient. Because the inner ear has no pain fibers, damage is not accompanied by pain.
Hearing loss is usually measured by an instrument called an audiometer which measures the weakest intensity at which a person can hear at most frequencies in the range of human hearing. The instrument is calibrated against the lowest intensity heard by
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 made up of three areas: the outer, middle, and inner ear. The outer ear is very important for collecting sound waves. It is made up of the pinna and the ear canal. The pinna, the actual physical outward appearance of the ear, receives sound waves and begins to funnel them into the ear canal.
1. Neurons is a basic building block of the nervous system. The sensory nerves carry the message from body tissues to the brain and spinal chord to be processed. The motor neurons are then used to send instructions to the body tissue from the brain and spinal cord. Dendrites, which are connected to the body cell (soma) receive information and pass it through the axon. Myelin sheath covers the axon and helps speed the process. When triggered by a signals from our senses or other neurons, the neuron fires an impulse called the action potential. The resting potential is the neuron’s visual charge of positive
Introduction: We perceive stimuli through nerve cells in our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. When a nerve cell is stimulated, it sends an electrical signal to the brain. After the signal is processed by the brain, other signals are sent to our muscles as we react to the stimulus.
Dendrites, the auditory nerve; the ear (4) the eyes and other sense organs found on the skin. The
The middle ear consists of three bones, the malleus, incus, and stapes. The tensor teympany which is a muscle that attaches to the malleus bone, as well as the stapes which is a muscle which attaches to the stapes bone. These muscles help to keep the bone off of the membrane that they are on to stop damage from loud noise. And lastly there is a Eustachian tube which is the middle ear as well it helps with pressure.
Medical professionals all over the world have paved the road for further research and technological advances in the hearing impaired spectrum. Implantations, such as the cochlear implant (CI), have given patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss newfound hope for habilitation and rehabilitation services. However, “there exists a small subset of deaf individuals who will not benefit from the CI due to (1) a small or absent cochlea, (2) a small or absent auditory nerve, or (3) injury or scarring of the inner ear or auditory nerve secondary to meningitis, trauma, or tumor” as stated by Kaplan et al. (2015). A treatment option for those who did not meet the candidacy qualifications for a cochlear implant needed to be implemented.
Hearing loss is the most common physical disability in the whole wide world. In the United States alone, about 28 million people have some level of hearing impairment that interferes with their ability to understand normal speech and participate in conversations. Another 2 million cannot hear at all.
Our human brains have about 100 billion neurons. These neurons react to physical and chemical changes in their surroundings. These cells specialize in sending and receiving neural messages. These neurons make connection with other neurons and send signals all over our bodies. Typically every neuron has a cell body, dendrites and an axon. Neuron’s body cell is like many other cells in body comprising of cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria, lysosomes, Golgi apparatus and many microtubules. These organelles enable to cell to perform its function. The axon portion of the neuron is responsible for carrying information to other neurons. The dendrite portion of the neuron is responsible for receiving the signals from the other neurons. Although neuron may have many dendrites, they typically have only one axon. All neurons are electrically excitable, maintaining voltage gradients across their membranes by means of metabolically driven ion pumps, which combine with ion channels embedded in the membrane to generate intracellular-versus-extracellular concentration differences of ions such as sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium. Changes in the cross-membrane voltage can
You might believe that the ears are the most essential item needed for hearing. For humans, that maybe partially true. The ears are specifically de sighed to receive sound vibrations that are emitted. They have a funnel-like shape that is perfect for collecting all of the sounds but, sometimes, there are too many that's why it is so hard to listen to two people talking to you at
If you don't protect you hearing your cells will disintegrate and they do not grow back nor heal.
More than 250 million people in the world are born deaf, the hearing loss is generally caused by damage to sensory receptors (hair cells) and nerves associated with them (5). The basic function of hair cells (cells Mkanvsnsvry) within the cochlea of the inner ear, with that mechanical vibrations of sound into electrical signals, then these messages reach the brain through the auditory nerve. When the hair cells are damaged, a person with hearing loss or deafness. It may also fix the cause, these cells have been rebuilt and to continue their activities. But in most cases this is not possible and will be a permanent hearing
Neurons carry impulses from one place to another around the nervous system. They connect receptors to the central nervous system, and connect one part of the nervous system to another, for example in the brain and spinal cord. They also carry impulses from the nervous system to effector organs, such as muscles and glands. When neurons are stimulated they transmit an electrical impulse. The brain sends messages through the spinal cord to peripheral nerves throughout the body to control the muscles and organs. The spinal cord is responsible for two functions within the nervous system. It connects a large part of the peripheral nervous system to the brain. Information reaching the spinal cord through sensory neurons are transmitted up into the
Hearing involves the external, middle, and inner ear. The auricle is what most people consider to be the ear itself, which is the external flesh on the outside head. Inside the auricle is a passage way known as the external auditory meatus (Seeley, Stevens, & Tate, 2002). Inside are hair-like structures and ceruminous glands, which serve as the lining for the meatus. Also, the ceruminous glands produce cerumen, more commonly known as earwax (Seeley, Stevens, & Tate, 2002). Together, the hairs and cerumen provide protection to the tympanic membrane, or eardrum, which separates the external and middle ear. Sound waves, vibrations of air, pass through the tympanic membrane, causing vibrations.
The Outer Ear has many structures that help to guide sound waves into the External Auditory Canal. The concha is the deepest groove and funnels the sound wave down the “s” shaped ear canal. Sam was fascinated at how the Outer Ear was shaped in order to localize sounds and push them down to the External Acoustic Canal. As acoustic energy, Sam traveled down the canal observing all the earwax trapping foreign objects like bugs and dirt. He immediately noticed how his sound seemed louder as the External Acoustic Canal enhances sounds. The External Auditory Canal is a ¼ wavelength resonator. It is a tube open at one end, the opening to the external auditory canal, and closed at the other, the tympanic membrane. This resonator has the ability to boost sounds at a frequency of nearly 2800 Hz. This resonance feature increases pressure to help transform acoustic energy into mechanical energy. Disgusted by the buildup of earwax, Sam was relieved when he reached the osseous portion at the end of the External Auditory Canal, which was just a thin layer of skin. No hair or wax to be found. Sam was amazed at the monstrous Tympanic Membrane that