The ear and hearing

The mechanical excitation of the mechanism of the ear results in a response pattern on the basilar membrane contained in the cochlea of the inner ear. In turn, the sensitive elements carried by the basilar membrane set a train of neural signals travelling along the nervous pathway to the cortex of the brain but, in the course of their travel, these signals become modified at four junction regions known as synapses. In this way, the necessary information is abstracted from the mechenical pattern of vibration on the basilar membrane for the brain to arrive at a decision regarding the nature of the source exciting the ear. An account is given of the anatomical and physiological features of the ear and the nature of nerve conduction as well as the experimental investigations which have contributed to our present knowledge of hearing function.