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By Grace Perry

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The Ears are paired organs located on either sides of the head. They work together to help with different functions such as hearing, balance, and processing your environment. Your ears work hard to analyze and process the sounds around you and prepare the soundwaves and vibrations you gather into information that your brain can process and understand. The following slides will go more into depth, helping you understand the functions, parts, systems, and cool facts about your ears!

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Inside your ear, there are semicircular canals filled with fluid and little hair-like sensors. The fluid moves around when you move your head, which also moves the hairs. The hairs then send a signal to your brain through the vestibular nerve, which tells your brain to then tell your muscles to help keep you balanced. Its like one big game of telephone!

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When somebody speaks, an animal makes a noise, or a trees leaves blow in the wind, it creates a sound wave. In order for your brain to process these sound waves and understand the world around you better, your ears do something called auditory processing. Otherwise known as hearing! To be able to hear, our brain and ears work together simultaneously to be aware and place meaning to those sounds.

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What are the different parts of the ear?

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What are the different parts of the ear?

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There are three parts to your ear, the outer ear (what you can see!), the middle ear (sound processing) and the outer ear (more processing and balance). Each section of the ear has multiple complex and intricate parts that all work together, allowing you to understand the sounds around you. All three parts are part of a system that takes the vibrations and soundwaves from the world, and transforms them into digestible information for your brain.

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What are the different parts of the ear?

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The outer ear is the part of your ear that's most visible is your outer ear. The funnel shaped canal of your ear leads to your eardrum, where further processing takes place. It consists of the pinna, or outer ear, and the external canal.

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Your outer ear, known as the Pinna, consists of ridged cartilage and skin. This part is responsible for collecting and directing sound waves. There are many different parts of the pinna, including the lobe, the antitragus, the concha, the antihelix, the fossa of helix, the helix, the fossa of antelix, the external auditory canal, the tragus, and the incisura intertragica. You might recognize some of those names from piercings you might have! The pinna acts as a reciever, funneling soundwaves into your ear canal. The pinna's shape also helps us locate where sounds are coming from.

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The canal is lined with skin and little hairs. It also contains glands that secrete earwax or cerumen. These glands are called ceruminous glands. Earwax protects your ear from dirt or debris, lubricate it, and even aid in it's self cleaning process! That's right, earwax is actually helping to make your ear cleaner! This is why you should not try to clean your ears yourself. If you are having excess earwax, then you should go to an ear doctor who can clean out your ears safely without damaging your ears.

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The middle ear begins at your eardrum (tympanic Membrane), and also includes the ossicles, and the Eustachian Tube. The middle ear is an air-filled space in-between your outer and inner ear. It is mainly responsible for amplifying and transmitting sound waves collected by your outer ear. It does this using 3 small bones. The ossicles contains these bones, the malleus, incus, and stapes.

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The eardrum, or tympanic Membrane is a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the outer ear from the middle ear. It's responsibility is to vibrate in response to incoming sound waves collected by the outer ear. These vibrations are then taken to the ossicles, the tiny bones in the middle ear, for further processing. The eardrum is highly sensitive and helps to convert the air vibrations into mechanical energy! Your eardrum also serves as a protective barrier, preventing whatever is in your ear canal from getting in.

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The ossicles are the three smallest bones in the human body: the malleus, incus, and stapes. Also known as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. These bones are located in the middle ear and form a chain that connects the eardrum to the middle ear, allowing for the soundwaves to flow. When the eardrum vibrates, the malleus moves, passing the vibration down to the incus and then the stapes, which presses on the oval window to the cochlea. This chain of bones amplifies sound vibrations and takes the to the fluid-filled inner ear, where further processing takes place.

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The Eustachian tube is a narrow passage that connects the middle ear to the back of the throat. It is responsible for equalizing any excess air pressure on both sides of the eardrum, which is important for hearing and comfort. These tubes open and activate during movements such as yawning, chewing, and swallowing, which allows air to flow in and/or out of the middle ear as needed. Without these tubes, your eardrums would constantly be bulging inwards or outwards and this would feel very uncomfortable.

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The inner ear is a complex, fluid-filled structure that is responsible for hearing and balance. There are 2 main parts, the cochlea, a spiral-shaped organ filled with hair cells, and the vestibular system, which includes semicircular canals, utricle, and saccule, which are responsible for balance and spatial orientation. The inner ear's precise functions are what makes it so essential for interpreting sound and keeping us upright!

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The cochlea is the spiral-shaped, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear. It's main responsibility is converting sound vibrations gathered by the middle ear into electrical signals for the brain to process. Inside the cochlea, there are many tiny hair cells that each respond to a different pitch and frequency. As the sound wave moves through the fluid in the spiral of the cochlea, they cause the basilar membrane to vibrate, stimulating the hair cells based on the pitch. These hair cells then send signals via the auditory nerve to the brain, allowing us to actually perceive the sound.

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The vestibular system is part of the inner ear and is responsible for our balance, posture, and spatial orientation. This system contains the semicircular canals, which detect head movement, and the utricle and saccule, which track linear motion and gravity. These structures are filled with fluid and just like the cochlea, are lined with hair cells. These hair cells have a different function: responding to movement. When you move your head, the fluid shifts and bends the hair cells, sending signals through the vestibular nerve to the brain. Our eyes and muscles also play a significant role in this system, as they make sure we are balanced and stable as we move!

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What part of my brain is my ear sending the signals to?

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What part of my brain is my ear sending the signals to?

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Your ears are located right on top of your temporal lobe, which is the part of your brain responsible for hearing, speech, memory, and some emotion. As your ears work through soundwaves, pitch, and vibrations, they produce information that your brain can process and understand. this information goes through your brain, and involves the frontal lobe, the thalamus, and the frontal lobe.

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Once soundwaves are converted into electrical signals by the hair cells in the cochlea, the information then goes to your auditory nerve, then the brainstem, where early processing begins! From here, signals pass through several "relay stations" including the cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex, and inferior colliculus. Each of these analyzes specific aspects of the sound, such as timing, location, and intensity. This then goes to the Thalamus, a section of your brain that tells signals where to go. Finally, the sound signals reach the primary auditory cortex in your frontal lobe, where your brain interprets them into recognizable or familiar sounds, such as speech, music or typical environmental sounds (this is responsible for your brain and body's reaction to your own name, and not someone else's!). This whole process and pathway allows for extremely precise and rapid sound perception, which is essential for communication and situational awareness.

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What are some ear conditions you could get?

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What are some ear conditions you could get?

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There are many different ear related conditions. Aging is the most common. You hearing naturally weakens as you get older, due to noise exposure, illnesses, and certain medications. Another common one is ear trauma. This can be from pushing cotton swabs or other object into your ear, which could cause a ruptured eardrum! Even a hard slap to the ear could hurt it! Sound exposure can also cause extreme damage. The scariest thing is that it could happen slowly in the long term, or even instantly. The greater the exposure to the loud sound, the greater the damage. However, noise induced hearing loss is 100% preventable by using hearing protection devices like earmuffs or earplugs.

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When it comes to hearing loss and general ear damage, a lot of it is preventable! Actions you can take are limiting your exposure to loud sounds. This could mean turning the tv and music down, wearing earplugs at loud events, and protecting your ears when using tools, such as a lawn mower. Keeping your volume low when you have earbuds in is also crucial and can save you from years of poor hearing! A good rule to follow is the 60/60 rule: no more than 60% volume for more than 60 minutes at a time. Although it's tempting to blast music when you want, you could be the sole reason for shouting "WHAT!??!" at your grandchild! Another very important preventative measure is making sure you don't stick any objects inside your ear canal. This can push ear wax deeper than it should go, and could lead to eardrum injury. instead, regular checkups with your healthcare provider can help clean your ears when needed, and detect early warning signs to keep your ears healthy!

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Most people have heard of acupuncture, but have you heard of using it on your ears? Some people believe that acupuncture or acupressure on your ears can have different effects on your body. Different parts of your ear, as shown on the chart above, correspond to different parts of your body. In a typical session, a mechanical probe is used to determine your "problem spots", which are then stimulated manually with needles, or with an electrical instrument. If done correctly it usually doesn't hurt!

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FUN FACT: Why do my ears ring after a concert?

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FUN FACT: Why do my ears ring after a concert?

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The ringing in your ear that you get after a concert or loud event is called temporary tinnitus. This occurs when your ears have been exposed to extremely loud sounds, often exceeding 85 decibels. This loud sound temporarily overstimulates and therefore, damages the hair cells in the inner ear and cochlea. This should be taken seriously because these tiny hair cells are what's responsible for converting sound waves into electrical signals that your brain can understand and interpret.

DID YOU KNOW.... The frequency of ringing that you hear correlates to a specific hair cell that is dying. That means that the pitch you are hearing while your ears are ringing could be the last time you are able to hear that pitch! Don't worry... often times, temporary tinnitus goes away after a few hours or days, and the hair cell has the possibility to slightly recover.

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Did you know that your ears never stop taking in information from the world around you? Even while you sleep, your ears and brain are constantly processing and trying to understand your environment. This can be traced back as an evolutionary development! Our auditory system is hardwired to detect threats and unusual or loud sounds and changes around us as we sleep. This could mean a herd of predators, or a crying baby. Unlike your eyes, your ears have no off switch. The reason why you can still sleep through some sounds (like your 6 morning alarms...) is because your brain works hard to filter out the sounds that it deems aren't important. This is also why when you are focusing, or zoning out you can miss someone talking right next to you. Have you ever seen a funny movie scene where a group of friends whispers into a sleeping friends ear and the next day he shares that his dream involved what they were whispering about? This also applies the same logic!

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In conclusion, the ear is a paired organ that uses auditory processing, helps balancing, and aids in environmental awareness. It has 3 main parts, inner, outer, and middle ear. It connects the a part of the brain called the temporal lobe, which handles hearing, speech, memory and some emotions. You can get common ear problems from not treating your ear right, or from aging. There are beliefs about acupressure for ears being used for therapeutic purposes, and more fun facts.

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How Your Ear Works? - The Dr. Binocs Show | Best Learning Videos For Kids | Peekaboo Kidz

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https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/17054-hearing

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24048-ear

http://www.acupuncturegeorgia.com/auricular-ear-points/