How We Hear

The Outer Ear
The outer ear collects sound waves, and directs them along the ear canal to the eardrum.

The Middle Ear
The middle ear contains the 3 tiniest bones in our body. They are called the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup).

The eardrum transmits vibrations to the malleus, which in turn passes them on to the incus and stapes.

The Inner Ear
The stapes vibrates in the opening to the inner ear, called the oval window. These vibrations are transmitted into a delicate, snail shaped structure called the cochlea.

Inside the fluid-filled cochlea, thousands of microscopic hair cells bend in response to the vibrations. This bending sets off nerve impulses which are transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve.

The nerve impulses arrive at the hearing center of the brain, called the auditory cortex. They are then interpreted as speech, music, noise, etc.