What is hearing used for?

Among the 5 senses , hearing is the one responsible for capturing the sounds that come to the human body from the external environment, and for their transmission to the temporal cortex. The temporal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for the reception and decoding of sounds , which come to it through a complex mechanism that originates in the auricle.

Table of Contents

What is hearing?

The auditory system is made up of a peripheral section and a central section. The peripheral auditory system , in turn, is made up of the outer ear, ear and inner ear .

The pavilion and the external auditory canal are the parts of the external ear, responsible both for capturing sound waves and for conveying them towards the eardrum .

The middle ear has the task of capturing the vibrations transmitted by the eardrum and of transmitting them to the inner ear by means of the operation of three small bones ( hammer, anvil and stirrup ).

The inner ear has the task of amplifying the auditory signals and translating them into a nervous message . It is characterized by a complex shape, therefore also called a labyrinth . The inner ear is formed in its front part by the snail (or cochlea), and in its rear part by the vestibule , and by two semicircular ducts . The vestibule and ducts are involved in the sense of balance, while the cochlea contributes to the sense of hearing.

The central auditory system is formed by the acoustic nerve (or cochlear vestibule or eighth cranial nerve) and the temporal cortex, the cerebral area responsible for sound perception. The task of the acoustic nerve is to transmit sound to the brain in the form of a nerve impulse and to send it to the temporal cortex, which decodes the nerve impulse so that it is perceived by the subject as sound.