How We Hear

Hearing depends on a series of complex steps that change sound waves in the air into electrical signals. Our auditory nerve then carries these signals to the brain. In essence, our ears work to alter the acoustic stimulus that enters and move through our ear canals, into a form of neural code that our brains can decipher, process and comprehend.

1. Sound transfers into the ear canal and causes the eardrum to move
2. The eardrum will vibrate with vibrates with the different sounds
3. These sound vibrations make their way through the ossicles to the cochlea
4. Sound vibrations make the fluid in the cochlea travel like ocean waves
5. Movement of fluid in turn makes the hair cells The auditory nerve picks up any neural signals created by the hair cells. Hair cells at one end of the cochlea transfer low pitch sound information and hair cells at the opposite end transfer high pitch sound information.
6. The auditory nerve moves signals to the brain where they are then translated into recognizable and meaningful sounds. It is the brain that “hears”.