The Science of Hearing: 1. How Do We Hear?
1How Do We Hear?
The ear is designed to collect air-borne sound vibrations in the outer ear, convert them to mechanical vibrations in the middle ear and ultimately transform the sound energy into electrical signals in the inner ear that are transmitted through the hearing nerve up to the brain where sound is ultimately decoded and understood.Our ears work 24 hours a day – even while we are sleeping! When sleeping at night, parents know when a baby cries, or when someone is sneaking treats out of the refrigerator. Our hearing alerts us when we drop our keys. Our auditory system streams our music to our brains so you can understand what the words to a song are, and most importantly audition (hearing) enables us to understand spoken words.
I bet you are curious how it actually works!