Nervous system: ears

Question 1

What does the distance between both ears do?

Answer 1

Helps the brain locate the direction of a source of sound

Question 2

What are the 3 parts of the ear?

Answer 2

Outer ear, middle ear and inner ear

Question 3

What does the outer ear comprise of?

Answer 3

Cartilage flap, the pinna and the ear canal (meatus)

Question 4

What’s in the middle ear?

Answer 4

An eardrum, ossicles and eustachian tube (into the back of the throat)

Question 5

What are the ossicles?

Answer 5

3 tiny bones in the ear: hammer, anvil and stirrup

Question 6

What does the eustachian tube do?

Answer 6

Keeps middle ear air pressure the same as that outside

Question 7

What does the inner ear contain?

Answer 7

The cochlea, semicircular canals, auditory nerve, vestibular nerve, oval and round window

Question 8

What maintains balance in the ear?

Answer 8

Semicircular canals (filled with fluid)

Question 9

How hearing works: pinna (1)

Answer 9

The pinna funnels sound waves through the ear canal where they vibrate the eardrum

Question 10

How hearing works: ossicles (2)

Answer 10

The ossicles amplify this vibration (sound waves) and transmit it via the oval window to the fluid in the cochlea

Question 11

How hearing works: organ of corti (structure in the cochlea)

Answer 11

Cells in the organ of corti interpret vibrations as nerve impulses, carried by the auditory nerve to the brain. Meanwhile, vibrations leave the cochlea through the round window