the sense of hearing

Question 1

what is a force?

Answer 1

can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , measured in Newtons N

Question 2

what is pressure?

Answer 2

ratio of the force to the area over which that force is distributed , measured in PAscal Pa

Question 3

what are sound waves?

Answer 3

they propagate as mechanical waves of pressure changes through some medium and speed of waves depends on the medium

Question 4

what is the smallest change in sound pressure that humans can detect?

Answer 4

20 micro Pa

Question 5

how do we describe differences in pressure more accuratley?

Answer 5

sound pressur elevel SPL and is measured on a log scale in units called decibels

Question 6

what is frequency?

Answer 6

the number of cycles per event, per wave and is percieved as pitch , measured in Hertz

Question 7

what is additive synthesis?

Answer 7

addition of pure tones to create complex tones

Question 8

what is fourier analysis?

Answer 8

break up complex waveforms into its pure tone components

Question 9

what are muscial instruments perceived as?

Answer 9

timbre

Question 10

what are the three complex tones?

Answer 10

fundamental frequency, second harmonic, third harmonic

Question 11

what are ears filled with?

Answer 11

watery fluid

Question 12

how does the middle ear act as an amplifier?

Answer 12

by surface reduction and a lever principle

Question 13

what is the acoustic reflex? 2

Answer 13

middle ear muscles are smallest skeletal muscles in human body
msucles tense when SPL is very high to protect against painful sounds

Question 14

how do we better understnad the cochlea?

Answer 14

unroll it

Question 15

three canals within the cochlea?

Answer 15

vestibular, tympanic, tectorial

Question 16

what organ can be thought of as the bodies microphonw?

Answer 16

the corti

Question 17

what are the inner and outer hair cells called in an ear?

Answer 17

stereocilia

Question 18

what three compenents are involved in sound transduction?

Answer 18

hairs of hair cell, snsory neuron and membrane potential

Question 19

how does transduction of sounds work?

Answer 19

phase locking of frequencies

Question 20

what determines vibration tuning?

Answer 20

basilar membrane

Question 21

how does basilar membrane shape change?

Answer 21

from base to apex it gets wider and floppier

Question 22

what is the process of tonopy?

Answer 22

sound stimuli to basiliar membrane vibration to bending of inner hair cilia to tonotopic auditory nerve activity

Question 23

what does a lack of functional outer hair cells lead to ?

Answer 23

frequency tuning is strongly reduced

Question 24

name two active processes?

Answer 24

sensation and perception

Question 25

how is tonopy maintained?

Answer 25

towards the cortex

Question 26

what is interaural time differnce?

Answer 26

works best for low frequencies

Question 27

what is interaural level difference?

Answer 27

works best for high frequencies

Question 28

name 6 components of the inner ear?

Answer 28

vestibulary nerve, auditory nerve, oval window, round window , cochlea and helicotrema

Question 29

what is the sixth sense?

Answer 29

vestibular organs

Question 30

what are the twp otolith organs?

Answer 30

utricle and saccule

Question 31

what do the otolith organs do?

Answer 31

focus on linear acceleration and gravity

Question 32

what are the three semicircular canals within vestibular organs?

Answer 32

anterior, posterior, horizontal