How We Hear the World Around Us

Sounds travel as waves and enter your outer ear, which funnels them into the ear canal.

The sound waves reach the eardrum which vibrates in response.

Tiny bones in the middle ear (malleus, incus, stapes) start to move. They amplify the vibrations and send them to the inner ear. In the inner ear, a snail-shaped structure called the cochlea is filled with fluid. The vibrations cause the fluid to move causing hair-like structures in the cochlea to move. Bending these hair cells triggers electrical signals that travel along the auditory nerve.

Finally, the auditory nerve carries these electrical signals to the brain, which interprets them as sound!