Question

1. What two structures in the ear are involved in your sense of balance and in what part of the ear (outer, middle, inner) are they found?

2. When you hear something, mechanical vibrations enter your ear, are amplified, detected then changed into electrical impulses that are sent to your brain. Starting with the pinna and ending with the cochlear nerve, list all the structures all the structures required to perceive sound, in order.

Answer 1

1. The two structures are utricle and saccule which can detect the changes the membrane movement in the 3 semicircular canals.

They are located in the inner ear.

2.The pinna of outer ear picks up sound which is transmitted through ear canal and vibrates the tympanam or ear drum , which transmits that vibration to the three bones in the middle ear malleus , incus and stapes in that order, stapes connected to superior oval window transfers this vibrations through fluid inside the inner ear. This causes the membranes in the cochlea to vibrate which causes the hair cells in organ of Corti to get excited and send the signal to the auditory center in the cerebral cortex.

Pinna, tympanam(ear drum) in the outer ear, stapes, inus and malleus bones in the middle ear, cochlea and basillar membrane to hair cells in organ of corti to auditory center in brain