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Tutorial 17: The Human Ear

Whereas the eye is an organ that synthesizes or "puts together" sensory information, the ear is an organ of analysis or breakdown. When light composed of two different wavelengths is processed by the visual system, the wavelengths are mixed and we perceive a single color. When a tone of two different frequencies is processed by the auditory system, we hear both tones and not a blend or mixture of the two. It is this quality of auditory processing that underlies our ability to differentiate identical tones generated by different instruments; to distinguish the talent of Placido Domingo from Luciano Pavarotti, the sound of oboe from bassoon.

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The shape of the ear has a big effect on how one hears, with the outer flap, or pinna, acting as a sound gatherer.

Articles of Interest

A Link to Ears of Early Humans

Our very early ancestors possessed bones in the middle ear very similar to those of modern humans, researchers are reporting. The finding suggests that hearing sensitivity is one of the oldest features of human evolution.

An Ode to the Human Ear

The human ear is a small marvel, home to more than 20,000 hair cells, able to detect sound waves at frequencies of 20 Hz and as high as 20,000 Hz, the site of the body's hardest bone (the temporal bone) yet still such a fragile structure. It's easy to take you, and your many complex functions, for granted.

Big ears: they really do grow as we age

Ears (and indeed noses) sag with age, thanks both to a loss of elasticity in the skin and to the effects of gravity. Earlobes droop, a phenomenon that can be accentuated by heavy earrings. More controversially, it has been suggested that because, unlike bone, cartilage continues to grow and ears are made of cartilage, that may also account for the phenomenon. But the evidence is sketchy, and some researchers argue that cartilage is only being replaced and does not account for the growth in ear size.

Doctors admonish us to leave earwax alone. Why won’t anyone listen?

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Doctors Transplant Ear of Human Cells, Made by 3-D Printer

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From health to sports – ears can say a lot about you

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Hear This, 2017: Scientists Are Creating New Ears With 3D-Printing and Human Stem Cells

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How Music May Help Ward Off Hearing Loss As We Age

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Mucus is gross. But here are 9 things you should know about it

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Our created ear

Looking at the ear and how it works, it becomes immediately obvious that there is an awesome and very intricate process underlying our auditory sense. In fact, the human ear is one of the most intricate examples of miniature and sophisticated engineering on the planet.

Perk up your ears

Human ears make tiny movements indicating the direction of sounds they are listening to, suggesting that humans have retained some ability to perk up their ears the way other animals do.

Scientists Solve Mystery Of Ear-Splitting Sounds

Reporting in Nature, researchers write that a rare type of neuron in the inner ear may process painfully loud sounds, such as the blast of a jackhammer. Study author Paul Fuchs discusses how his team solved a mystery that had stumped auditory scientists for nearly 50 years.

Sounds you can't hear can still hurt your ears

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Structure of the Human Ear

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The Best-Looking Laboratory-Grown Ear Yet

This is a bioengineered piece of tissue made to the size and shape of an adult human ear.

The ear: structure and functions

The primary function of the ear is to maintain our senses of balance and hearing. Also known as the vestibulocochlear organ, it acts as a receptor and filter in which auditory stimuli are transformed into information that is subsequently decoded by the brain. Therefore, the main functions carried out by the ear are detecting, transmitting and converting sounds into electric impulses.

The Human Ear

We will attempt to understand how the human ear serves as an astounding transducer, converting sound energy to mechanical energy to a nerve impulse that is transmitted to the brain. The ear's ability to do this allows us to perceive the pitch of sounds by detection of the wave's frequencies, the loudness of sound by detection of the wave's amplitude and the timbre of the sound by the detection of the various frequencies that make up a complex sound wave.

The Human Ear — Anatomy and Function

Pressure waves transmitted by air or water are funneled by the pinna and the ear canal to the tympanic membrane. The pressure waves cause the tympanic membrane to vibrate, which causes the auditory ossicles to move simultaneously in response.

The rise of the cosmetic 'lobe job'

They sag, droop, shrivel and give away your hideously advancing years. Go and have a look at them. I bet they swing from side to side every time you move. If they don't now, they will in a few years. But don't worry because kindly cosmetic surgeons can now save your ageing earlobes. Yes, earlobes. Having offered everything from little toe removal to vaginal "rejuvenation" and elbow lifts, the wonderfully weird world of cosmetic surgery has delivered a new body part for deranged people to agonise over.

Weird Facts About the Ears, Nose and Throat

The human ear, nose and throat tract is very interesting and sometimes an enigma. There are many cool things the human body does and experiences in terms of the ear, nose and throat tract...

Woman’s ear rebuilt with 3D-printed living tissue implant

This article is more than 3 years old Woman’s ear rebuilt with 3D-printed living tissue implant This article is more than 3 years old Procedure carried out in US on woman with microtia born with small and misshapen right ear Nicola Davis Thu 2 Jun 2022 12.02 EDT Share A woman has had her external ear reconstructed using a 3D-printed living tissue implant in what appears to be the first trial of its kind, according to reports. The technology has been developed for people with microtia, a rare congenital condition in which one or both outer ears are absent or incompletely formed.

Resources

5 Amazing Facts About Ears

So how much do you know about your ears, really? The following list will detail some surprising facts about your ears, some you’ve probably never even considered.

Geeks for Geeks

The ear is a human organ that allows us to hear sounds in our environment. The primary function of the ear is to keep us balanced and to distinguish different noises. It aids in the conversion of pressure fluctuations into electronic impulses that flow through the auditory nerve to the brain.

StatPearls

The human ear is a rudimentary shell-like structure that lies on the lateral aspect of the head. The ear is a cartilaginous structure. For physiological study purposes, it subdivides into three fundamental substructures: the external ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.