Hearing for Dummies Gillian, Gio & Kaylyn

The Ear

 

To understand the ear we must comprehend what sound is. Let’s mentally picture an object in a room on one side, and a big giant ear on the opposing side. When this object produces ‘sound’ it in fact vibrates.

 

There are three basic steps for your ear to hear sound.

 

1)    Sound waves must be directed towards the ear.

2)    The ear senses fluctuations in air pressure.

3)    These fluctuations are then turned into an electrical signal that the brain comprehends.

 

The ear is considered an extraordinary organ. This organ is able to pick up sounds in a surrounding area and translate them into information your brain understands. Sound reaches our ears as waves. Hearing is totally mechanical, where as taste, touch, and vision all involve chemical reactions. 

Extra facts:

 

-       hearing is the second sense developed in the womb after touch.

-       Music activates every region of the brain that we’ve so far mapped.

-       Sense of hearing is a product of evolution (developed to help us survive) it orients and informs of events behind, around corners and any other places we can’t see.

-       These days we shut out nose with our own audio environment (MP3 players, iPods)

-       A healthy cochlea is lined with 3000 tiny hairs which act as sounds receptors whereas a cochlea implant takes sound and digitizes it with only 9-12 nodes.

-       our human speech acts as a sound source, which our brain recognizes as our ears get atuned to the harmonic structure or music an pitch trajectory