Structure and Function of the Ear – Hearing (PSY,BIO)

00:00 So, do you hear the soft, melodious tones in my voice? Do you know that I’m sitting in front of you? Can you tell that I’m a male? Can you tell that I’m extremely happy right now? Well, these are all some features of sound that you’re detecting without even thinking.

00:16 So that’s why right now we’ve blocked out the screen, because I want you to just focus in on that voice.

00:21 Just appreciate how intricate and amazing that whole process is a and you don’t ever even think about it.

00:27 So, let’s walk through the ear and we’re going to look at the structure and function and how it works.

00:33 So we have three broad areas of the ear that we want to talk about.

00:38 The first is outer ear.

00:40 So this includes structures like the auricle, the pinna, the external auditory canal, the tympanic membrane, also known as the eardrum.

00:47 That’s all the stuff that you’ll see on the outside.

00:49 Quite clear, quite obvious.

00:51 The outer ear and some of the stuff that, you know, you might kind of see if you peek in.

00:56 It’s stuff that when you go to the doctor, they take a peek, that’s what they’re looking at.

00:59 They’re looking at the canal.

01:00 They’re looking at the eardrum or the tympanic membrane.

01:03 It’s also where you sometimes want to put a Q-tip but not too far.

01:06 Then we have the middle ear.

01:07 This includes the three small bones that we all hear about, the three smallest bones in the human body.

01:14 So the ossicles, the ossicles: the malleus, the incus, the stapes, so we’ve heard this being termed as the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup.

01:25 And they’re given those names based on their structure.

01:28 So you can’t really see great in this image, but you can easily look up an image and it’ll show you their actual shape.

01:34 Not a huge deal for the exam, but just you should be more familiar with the actual names.

01:38 Then you have the inner ear.

01:39 This is stuff that’s called that because it’s inside your head.

01:43 And we have structures like the cochlea which is the star really of the show and where a lot of the action happens.

01:48 Semicircular canals, utricle, and the saccule.

01:53 So really, really important to understand those three broad components.

01:58 Now, we’re going to work through some of the different components that are sort of -- of interests more around the middle and inner ear because the outer ear is, not that it’s not important, it’s just pretty straightforward.

02:08 So components of the inner ear are important for our sense of balance.

02:12 So we all know that it happens when you’re dizzy or something is awry and you get tipsy and a lot of that is controlled by the function of the inner ear.

02:23 So the round window, which is found in the cochlea, it allows fluid to move within that cochlea.

02:29 And then we have something called the Eustachian tube, which equalizes the pressure on both sides of the inner and middle ear.

02:35 It’s also where you get that ear-popping effect when your ears pop.