Anatomy of the Human Ear

For the human ear to hear sounds, sounds waves must approach the outer ear. Once it
hits the outer ear, it enters the ear canal. As it travels down the ear canal, it goes
towards the middle ear towards the eardrum. The eardrum vibrates back and forth,
which activates movement in the middle part of the ear. The middle ear also contains
the hammer, anvil, and the stirrup. As the sound wave travels through these parts, it
vibrates against the inner ear, which contains the cochlea. The cochlea is shaped like a
snail where the spiral portion contains little hair-like structures that move the sound
wave through the spiral and translate it into electrical signals that the brain can
understand. The signals travel through the hearing nerve to the brain. The information
gets interpreted in the brain by the auditory cortex as speech, sound, or music. This
happens so fast that people hear and process without breaks in between sound waves.

Each hair cell has a small patch of stereocilia sticking up out of the top it. Sound makes
the stereocilia rock back and forth. If the sound is too loud, the stereocilia can be bent or
broken. This will cause the hair cell to die and it can no longer send sound signals to the
brain. In people, once a hair cell dies, it will never grow back. The high frequency hair
cells are most easily damaged so people with hearing loss from loud sounds often have
problems hearing high pitched things like crickets or birds chirping.

There are also varying degrees of hearing loss from which one can suffer - mild,
moderate, severe, and profound. A person with average hearing can hear quiet sounds
between 25 and 40 db. When one has a mild hearing loss, they can still hear, however
they might have some trouble following conversations in a noisy place (elderly people
often suffer from this level of hearing loss). Moderate hearing loss sufferers have
difficulty hearing anything between 40 and 70 db. A person with this level of hearing
loss has a much harder time understanding what is being said without a hearing aid. A
person with severe hearing loss can only hear sounds between 70 and 95 db. Such a
person would need a pretty powerful hearing aid, but typically they lip-read along with a

combination of using a hearing aid and sign language. Lastly, those who have a
profound hearing loss cannot hear from 95 db or more and communicate mostly from
lip-reading and using sign language.
****what is a db? A decibel is a degree of loudness, specifically, it is a unit that measures
the sound level that one hears.

Normal Hair Cells:

This is a picture of the top of a
healthy hair cell. The stereocilia
are standing in perfect rows.

Damaged Hair Cells:

This is a picture of the top of a
hair cell that has been in very
loud noise. Look at what
happened to the stereocilia!
They are all bent over. This hair
cell will die and never send
signals to the brain again. This
is a cause of hearing loss and

There are two types of hearing loss:

Conductive Hearing Loss - caused by an illness or disease where sound is blocked from the
middle ear to the inner ear (a person who has lost the ability to hear soft/quiet sounds). This
type of loss can be corrected or helped by hearing aids.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss - caused when theres a breakdown or damage of the nerve cells
from the inner ear nerves that go to the brain cells; aka the auditory nerve. This is usually an
irreversible, and untreatable condition (once nerve cells are damaged or unable to work, theres

no repairing it), however, sometimes hearing aids can work. Although there are these two types,
there is a way to have both of them combined, which is called Mixed Hearing Loss - damage to
the outer, middle, and inner ear cause the hearing loss

Causes of Conductive Hearing Loss:

Malformation of outer ear, ear canal, or middle ear structures

Fluid in the middle ear from colds

Ear infection (otitis media - an infection of the middle ear in which an

accumulation of fluid may interfere with the movement of the eardrum and ossicles

Allergies
Poor Eustachian tube function
Perforated eardrum
Benign tumors
Impacted earwax
Infection in the ear canal
Foreign body in the ear
Otosclerosis

Causes Sensorineural Hearing Loss:


Exposure to loud noise

Head trauma

Virus or disease

Autoimmune inner ear disease

Hearing loss that runs in the family

Aging (presbycusis)

Malformation of the inner ear

Menieres Disease

Otosclerosis - a hereditary disorder in which a bony growth forms around a

small bone in the middle ear, preventing it from vibrating when stimulated by sound.

Tumors

Works Cited
1.
html
2.
3.
4.

http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/virtualexhibit/2howdowehear.
https://www.hearinglink.org/your-hearing/how-the-ear-works/
http://www.betterhearing.org/hearingpedia/types-hearing-loss
http://www.hearingloss.org/content/types-causes-and-treatment

5.

http://www.hear-it.org/Defining-hearing-loss