Hearing Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Hearing?
Hearing is the process of perceiving sound by the ear. It is one of the five senses and it plays an important role in communication, language development, and overall quality of life. Hearing involves many different parts working together to create an auditory experience. The ear picks up noises from the environment, which then travel to the brain where they are interpreted as sound.Hearing begins with the outer ear, which collects sound vibrations and directs them towards the eardrum. Once it reaches this thin membrane, it causes it to vibrate which in turn causes three small bones in your middle ear (called ossicles) to move back and forth like a lever. This movement creates waves that travel further into your inner ear where thousands of tiny hair cells sit on top of a fluid-filled chamber called cochlea. These cilia convert these waves into electrical signals that are sent directly to your brain via auditory nerve fibers for interpretation as meaningful sounds or speech information. The ability to hear clearly can have significant impacts on our quality of life allowing us to enjoy music, communicate with others more effectively, detect environmental dangers such as fire alarms or car horns, understand verbal instructions at work or school and even just follow conversations around us more easily. However, hearing loss can cause problems like difficulty understanding speech or intrusive tinnitus (ringing or buzzing) noises in one’s ears due to damage within any part of this complex hearing system. Therefore regular monitoring is recommended for those who may be at risk for hearing loss due to age related factors or certain medical conditions such as diabetes etc., so that any early signs can be addressed before they become disabling issues later on down the line.