Mini-Course: Preparing for School-Entry
1 - How Hearing Works
How does hearing work?
Hearing is a mechanical process in our bodies that translates sounds into messages, which the brain then interprets and understands. A diagram of the ear is provided below so that you can see where in the ear each step takes place.- The outer ear picks up sound waves and directs them into the middle ear.
- The vibration of the sound waves in turn vibrates the eardrum, which is also called the tympanic membrane. The eardrum is located between the outer ear and the middle ear.
- In the middle ear, three tiny bones amplify the vibrations of the eardrum and transmit them into the inner ear.
- Next, the cochlea, which looks like a snail-shaped coiled tube, translates the physical vibrations of the sound waves into electrical information. Vibrations move through fluid inside the cochlea like ripples on a pond, triggering tiny hair cells within the cochlea along the way. Different hair cells respond to vibrations at different frequencies. The louder the sound, the more hair cells move.
- When stimulated, hair cells send an electrical "pulse" through the auditory nerve, which passes the message on to the cerebral cortex of the brain.
- The brain takes this information and interprets it as sound.
Watch the video below to review how sound travels in a typical-hearing ear.
Don't have Quicktime? Download it here.
Return to Preparing for School-Entry