How do your ears work

Hearing loss occurs when sounds that are typically loud become softer and less intelligible; this is a result of our brain being misled through a loss of audibility.

Information also becomes distorted as it reaches the brain, disrupting the quality of our hearing. Head trauma, neurologic disease, medical disorder or the process of simply aging, can result in alterations in the ability of the brain to process stimuli effectively.

This can lead to symptoms that reflect hearing loss; such symptoms may include inattention, inappropriate responses, and confusion. Our brain works with our ears in an incredible way, processing neural events into our hearing and all that it involves. When your hearing is working as it should, signals and information are processed through various parts of the ear and go up the auditory nerve to the brain.

If you have questions or concerns regarding hearing loss, reach out to us today. The sound waves enter the inner ear and then into the cochlea, a snail-shaped organ. The cochlea is filled with a fluid that moves in response to the vibrations from the oval window. As the fluid moves, 25, nerve endings are set into motion.

These nerve endings transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that then travel along the eighth cranial nerve auditory nerve to the brain. In green are four rows of hair cells that respond to sound vibrations, and in red are auditory nerve fibers that convey sound information from the hair cells to the brain. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are studying the molecular mechanisms that guide the formation of hair cells.

Studies such as these might be a step towards less invasive treatments for deafness in which molecular cues can be used to biologically regenerate hair cells in the cochlea.

Health Home Conditions and Diseases. This movement leads to vibrations of three very small bones in the middle ear known as the ossicles say: AH-sih-kuls. The ossicles are:. To hear properly, the pressure on both sides of your eardrum must be equal.

When you go up or down in elevation, the air pressure changes and you may feel a popping sensation as your ears adjust. They adjust thanks to the narrow Eustachian say: yoo-STAY-she-en tube that connects the middle ear to the back of the nose and acts as a sort of pressure valve, so the pressure stays balanced on both sides of the eardrum. The vibrations from the middle ear change into nerve signals in the inner ear. The inner ear includes the cochlea say: KOH-klee-uh and the semicircular canals.

The snail-shaped cochlea changes the vibrations from the middle ear into nerve signals. These signals travel to the brain along the cochlear nerve, also known as the auditory nerve. The semicircular canals look like three tiny connected tubes.

It's their job to help you balance. The canals are filled with fluid and lined with tiny hairs. When your head moves, the fluid in the canals sloshes around, moving the hairs. The hairs send this position information as signals through the vestibular say: veh-STIB-yuh-ler nerve to your brain.