Anatomy of the Ear

      1.  The Outer Ear

      2.  The Middle Ear (Eardrum and Ossicles)

      3.  The Inner Ear (Cochlea)

      4.  Hearing and Balance nerve

How does the ear work?  

The ear is made up of three main sections:

• The Outer Ear
• The Middle Ear
• The Inner Ear

The Outer Ear

      The outer ear is made up of the pinna and the ear canal.  The pinna is the part of our ear that lies outside the head – it’s the part that we put earrings on and hook glasses over.  Its function is to collect sounds from the outside world.   That sound is then funneled down the ear canal towards the eardrum.  Earwax is created by glands in the ear canal. 

The Middle Ear

      As sound reaches the end of the ear canal, it strikes the eardrum.  The eardrum is a thin membrane that vibrates as sound strikes it.  This vibration causes the ossicles, or small middle ear bones, to also vibrate.  These bones are commonly referred to as the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup.  They form the bridge from the eardrum into the inner ear.  They increase and amplify the sound vibrations even more, before safely transmitting them on to the inner ear.

The Inner Ear

      The inner ear is made up of the cochlea and our balance organs.  The cochlea is shaped like a snail shell and is lined with tiny hair cells that are bathed in fluid.  When sound enters this part of the ear it creates a wave in the fluid, which causes the hair cells to move back and forth.  This is similar to seaweed on the bottom of the ocean moving as a wave moves through, but unlike the seaweed, the hair cells can move back and forth thousands of times in just a second.  This back and forth motion of the hair cells creates an electrical impulse, which is sent to the hearing nerve.  Sounds then takes a complex pathway from the hearing nerve all the way up to the brain, where it is processed.