Q: How do we hear?
A: Your ears pick up and send information about sounds to your brain in the form of nerve impulses. Sounds are collected in the outer ear and are sent into the ear canal to the eardrum (the eardrum is a thin tissue which separates the outer ear from the middle part of the ear). Three small bones in the middle part of the ear make sounds louder. In the inner part of the ear, there are spaces filled with liquid. One of the liquid-hearing receptor cells inside are like tiny hairs. Sounds from the middle part of your ear cause liquid inside the cochlea to move around. The Mocemanet of this liquid bends like hair-like receptor cells. The receptor cells send impulses to the auditory nerve which goes to the brain. The brain receives impulses from the auditory nerve and gives meaning to the sound impulses.
Q: Why do we have to ears?
A: We have two ears because the sounds hits one ear a fraction of a second before the other and produces stronger vibrations. It helps you tell what direction the sounds come from.
Q: How are ears related to feeling dizzy? balance?
A: If the vestibular organs are damaged or diseased, they send too many or too few impulses to the brain. The brain interprets these abnormal messages as an imbalance of the body. The person then has a false feeling of motion or dizziness. This condition is called vertigo. A person whose vestibular organs have been destroyed by gradually learn to depend entirely on eye sight and other senses to maintain balance.
Q: What can cause deafness?
A: Deafness can be caused before a baby is born. A child can inherit deafness. A mother who has rubella or some over viral infection while she is pregnant can have deaf or otherwise a handicapped child. A premature baby, before the full nine months, or a full-term baby experiencing a difficult birth accompanied with a lack of oxygen has a possibility of being deaf. One other thing is after birth. A person can have an illness that can result in hearing loss.
Q: What other disorders/diseases are associated with hearing?
A: Other than deafness, there are many diseases associated with hearing. Some of these are otitis media (infection of the middle ear), otosclerosis (infection of the auditory ossicles), and meniere's disease (disorder of the inner earmarked by periodic attacks of hearing loss). All of these diseases are caused by birth defects or injuries.
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