LING 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Outer Ear, Sound Localization, Stirrup
24 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
The pinna: the odd, cone-shaped things that one can see outside of our heads. Helps focus sound waves and direct them to the interior of the ear. The auditory canal, 2. 5cm long tube that leads to the : eardrum (tympanic membrane): this is a sensitive membrane that separates the outer from the interior ear. The pinna and auditory canal amplify certain sound frequencies, in particular those relevant for speech. This process leads to slightly different results in the two ears due to their different location and orientation, and the discrepancy between the signals is what we use for sound localization. An illustration of sound localization can be found here. An air-filled chamber, which includes the ossicles, the smallest bones in the human body. They form a connected chain of levers that convert the vibration of the eardrum into mechanical energy. Because of their shape, they are called hammer, anvil, and stirrup (malleus, incus, and stapes (pronounced [ stejpi z/])).
