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How do sound waves travel from the outer ear to the brain?
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sound reception
Auditory mechanisms in insects. (Left) A scolophore organ. (Top right) The mosquito ear. (Centre right) The ear of the cicada Magicicada septendecim. (Bottom right) The ear of the grasshopper.
Sound waves travel from the outer ear to the brain through a complex process of mechanical conduction and electrochemical signaling:
- Outer Ear: The auricle collects sound waves and funnels them through the external auditory canal to the tympanic membrane, causing it to vibrate.12
- Middle Ear: These vibrations move the ossicular chain—the malleus, incus, and stapes—which acts as a mechanical bridge, conducting sound to the inner ear via the oval window.12
- Inner Ear: The stapes transmits vibrations into the fluids of the cochlea. This movement displaces the basilar membrane, causing hair cells in the organ of Corti to bend. This mechanical action triggers the release of neurotransmitters, converting the sound into electrical nerve impulses.3
- Brain: These impulses travel along the cochlear nerve to the medulla oblongata and through a series of central auditory pathways in the brainstem and midbrain, eventually reaching the cerebral cortex for processing.45