How Does the Sense of Hearing Work?
Hearing begins with the ears, which receive sounds and send them to the auditory cortex, near the back of the brain, for processing. The primary instrument for sound gathering in the ear is the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, which separates the outer ear from the middle ear. The eardrum passes along sound vibrations to the ossicles, the three smallest bones in the human body, when then divert it to the fluid-filled, labyrinth-like structure in the inner ear called the cochlea, where the true hearing organs reside. Collectively, the assemblage of sound-processing organs is called the auditory system. The sensory organ for hearing is the Organ of Corti, named after the Italian anatomist Alfonso Corti, who discovered it using a microscope in 1851. The Organ of Corti is internal to the cochlea, and contains about 15,000 – 20,000 specialized sensory cells, each with a little hair capable of picking up minute vibrations in the cochlear fluid. If destroyed by loud sounds, these hairs never gr
