ears structure and function

Overall

Ear can be divided into:

The outer ear and ear canal, Which consists of the portion of the ear you can see,øremuslingen, And the hudbeklædte time into the ear drum.
Middle ear, Which is a cavity behind the ear drum. Here are the 3 small øreknoglerhammer, anvil and Stigboejlen. In addition, there a little muscle, which can dampen movement of øreknoglerne.
The inner ear, Which contains the actual sensory organssnailandarchway.

Here are the ears 2 main functions, namely a sense of hearing and sense of balance.

Hearing

Sound waves cause small changes in air pressure. These make swings in the ear drum. When the ear drum moves, put all mellemørets 3 øreknogler the move because they are linked in a kind of chain in the following order: the hammer, anvil and climb arch. The hammer is attached to drum, and Stigboejlen footrest sits at the entrance to the snail in the inner ear, the so-calledoval window. The snail is a fluid, and movement of Stigboejlen footrest is fluid in motion. The fluid motion affects some small hårlignende sensory cells in the snail, and it is this influence which transformed into a nervous signal.

If just one of the above structures are damaged, then you will be hearing worse. An injury to lydledningsapparatet (drum skin and øreknogler) can provide hearing loss of up to 60dB (see Sound and noise). Damage to the snail can cause total deafness.

A sense of balance

There are 3 ways in which the brain can get information on what position your body is in, thus keeping the balance. One is the nerve impulses from the archway (balance the body) in the inner ear. The other two are sighted and special sensory organs in the muscles and tendons.

Archway is 3 mutually perpendicular knoglerør that contain fluid. The pipes are hårlignende sensory cells that bend when the fluid moves. The fluid is put into motion when the head moves, as if one puts his head tilted to one side, or when the whole body moves, if one example. sitting in a car to accelerate. Various archway affected, depending on the direction of movement. Curvature of sensory cells are transformed into a nervous signal. It is only by amending the move to the formation of nerve signaling

If the sensory cells are damaged, you may get a false sense of movement (vertigo). You can also getnystagmus, Which is characteristic of eye movements, the eyes involuntarily move to the side and then quickly return to the starting position. By malfunction of arcade will also have more difficulty keeping balance, particularly with closed eyes.