Lecture

The Auditory System: Anatomy, Function, and Localization

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In course

EE-548: Audio engineering

This lecture is oriented towards the study of audio engineering, room acoustics, sound propagation, and sound radiation from sources and acoustic antennas. The learning outcomes will be the techniques for microphones and loudspeaker design, as well as room ...

Description

This lecture covers the anatomy and function of the auditory system, including diffraction by the head and body, the role of the external ear in sound localization, the middle and inner ear mechanisms, and the electro-chemical transmission at hair cells in the cochlea. It explains how diffraction effects and HRTF characterize sound localization, the impedance matching in the middle ear, and the transformation of sound into nervous stimuli in the inner ear. The lecture also discusses the functions of the cochlea, the organ of Corti, and the basilar membrane in processing sound signals.

Instructor

Hervé Lissek

Expertise Acoustics and audio engineering, Electroacoustics.Room acoustics.Active noise control.Acoustic metamaterials.Assisted reverberation.Psychoacoustics.Sound spatialization Expertise Acoustics and audio engineering, Electroacoustics.Room acoustics.Active noise control.Acoustic metamaterials.Assisted reverberation.Psychoacoustics.Sound spatialization Mission Head of the Acoustic Group at the Laboratory of Wave Engineering LWE. Research topics :Active Electroacoustic Resonators: turning conventional lou

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Health sciences

Otorhinolaryngology: Topics in otorhinolaryngology

Related concepts (31)

Inner ear

The inner ear (internal ear, auris interna) is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In vertebrates, the inner ear is mainly responsible for sound detection and balance. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the temporal bone of the skull with a system of passages comprising two main functional parts: The cochlea, dedicated to hearing; converting sound pressure patterns from the outer ear into electrochemical impulses which are passed on to the brain via the auditory nerve.

Cochlea

The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the Organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating the fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea. The name cochlea derives . The cochlea (: cochleae) is a spiraled, hollow, conical chamber of bone, in which waves propagate from the base (near the middle ear and the oval window) to the apex (the top or center of the spiral).

Middle ear

The middle ear is the portion of the ear medial to the eardrum, and distal to the oval window of the cochlea (of the inner ear). The mammalian middle ear contains three ossicles, which transfer the vibrations of the eardrum into waves in the fluid and membranes of the inner ear. The hollow space of the middle ear is also known as the tympanic cavity and is surrounded by the tympanic part of the temporal bone.

Hair cell

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of both the auditory system and the vestibular system in the ears of all vertebrates, and in the lateral line organ of fishes. Through mechanotransduction, hair cells detect movement in their environment. In mammals, the auditory hair cells are located within the spiral organ of Corti on the thin basilar membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear. They derive their name from the tufts of stereocilia called hair bundles that protrude from the apical surface of the cell into the fluid-filled cochlear duct.

Organ of Corti

The organ of Corti, or spiral organ, is the receptor organ for hearing and is located in the mammalian cochlea. This highly varied strip of epithelial cells allows for transduction of auditory signals into nerve impulses' action potential. Transduction occurs through vibrations of structures in the inner ear causing displacement of cochlear fluid and movement of hair cells at the organ of Corti to produce electrochemical signals. Italian anatomist Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti (1822–1876) discovered the organ of Corti in 1851.

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