I was surprised back then in school when my Biology Teacher told us that our ears helps us to maintain balance 馃憘馃従. It still amazed me how the ear does such a miracle. Today I'm going to be talking about the Ear
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As known, the ear 馃憘馃従 is our organ of hearing. Like I said, the Ear does not only help us to hear, it also has a role to play in balance maintenance.
The Components Of The Ear 馃憘馃従
The Ear has 3 major parts which are,
The External Ear
The Middle Ear
The Inner Ear
Explanation:
The External Ear
It is also called the outer ear, it consist of the Pina, which collects sound waves and sends it to the auditory canal or ear tube which leads to a tympanic membrane/eardrum.
Image showing only the pina
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The Middle Ear
It is also known as the tympanic cavity. It consist of the ear ossicles or ear bones which vibrates and sends signal to the inner ear and the Eustachian tube that connects the ear to the larynx for air passage. At times,you will feel your ear is blocked until you either swallow saliva or jump, this is bacause saliva has entered your eustachian tube.
The Inner Ear
It contains a complex passage called Labyrinth. The labyrinth is filled with fluid called perilymph. There's also a membranous labyrinth filled with Endolymph.
The labyrinth consist of the Semicircular Canals which swells at their connection to the Utriculus to form the Ampola & Saculuswhich are concerned with balance and the cochlea which is connected to the organ of corti is the organ of hearing.
How we can hear
Hearing machanism is not that hard to explain. Sound is collected by the pina and sent to the ear tube, when the sound reaches the ear drum, the drum vibrates causing the bones which are the; Hammer (malleut), Anvil (incus) and Stirrup (stapes) this vibrates the oval window (The oval window connect the stapes to the inner ear)
The window also vibrates and passes the wave into the cochlea where the perilymph vibrates causing endolymph to vibrates. The vibration is transmitted into the organ of corti which set up the impulse and stimulates the auditory nerve thereby sending the impulse to the brain.
That's it for hearing.
How Your Ear Maintain Body Balance
The Semicircular Canals responds to the rotation of the head. Near the semicircular canals are the utricle and saccule, which detect gravity and back-and-forth motion. When the head is moved, signals from these organs are sent via the vestibular nerve to the brain where they are processed.
The brain uses the information from the inner ear, our vision and proprioception to pinpoint the position of the body.
It is as simple as that.
I'm sure I did well to explain to you how a healthy ear 馃憘馃従 works
Thanks for reading. Byeeeee馃憢馃従馃憢馃従