The inner ear. Structure and functions.

The ear is rightly considered a complex vestibular organ, which is responsible for performing two functions. It perceives sound waves, is responsible for maintaining equilibrium and has the ability to keep the body in space in a certain position. The ear is a paired organ, located in the temporal bone of the skull and confined to the outside by the auricles. The ear is represented by three departments, each of which is responsible for certain functions: external, middle and inner.

The inner ear. Structure.

The inner structure of the ears is a bit like a cochlea (which is why it has the same name), and is a complex tubular system that is filled with liquid. The inner ear is located in the depth of the temporal bone, it consists of two parts - a cochlea (organ of hearing) and semicircular canals (an organ of balance).

These organs contain a sound-receiving apparatus and a vestibular analyzer, which is responsible for the position of the body in space, for maintaining equilibrium, and also for muscle tone. The anatomical commonality of these two important systems is very important, and their imbalance can cause not only hearing problems, but also a vestibular function disorder, the main symptom of which is vomiting, nausea, dizziness.

Organ of balance of the inner ear

The vestibular apparatus or organ of equilibrium consists of semicircular canals, which are located in three perpendicular planes, and of two small sacs. Perilempha fills the channels, inside which there are other tubules filled with endolymph, they communicate with the channels of the cochlea. Sensitive nerve endings form impulses that react to the slopes of the head, and the brain calculates how the body is positioned relative to the head.

There are situations when the cells of the vestibular apparatus form impulses for entirely different reasons than the head turns. A similar situation can occur with inflammation of the inner ear or in some other pathologies, for example, when the ear canal is too hot or too cold water. In such cases, there may be a feeling of nausea and dizziness, down to loss of orientation in space.

The organ of hearing

The inner ear is responsible for the auditory sensations. Sound waves through the oval window fall into the inner ear and cause fluid movement and vibrations of tiny villi. Vorsels convert oscillations into impulses, which enter the brain through the auditory nerve, and the brain subsequently transforms them into auditory images.

The inner ear is responsible for recognizing the frequency, thanks to which a person has the ability to distinguish one sound from another. A complex chain of electromechanical processes of the inner ear involves all its parts, so in order for the hearing to be in order, they all have to function normally. If any of these mechanisms fail, the hearing is disrupted.

Hearing loss is the most common pathology of the inner ear

The sound in the ear is characterized by such features as amplitude and frequency. Amplitude is the force with which a sound wave exerts pressure on the membrane, the frequency in turn determines the number of oscillations of the sound wave that it makes in a second. The loss of the ability to distinguish sounds and to detect certain frequencies is called a hearing loss. Deafness can be conductive, sensorineural and mixed. Sensoneural deafness is a violation of the sensitivity of the cochlea, or a decrease in the functions of the auditory nerve. Conductive hearing loss is a violation of conductivity between the outer and middle ear, and mixed hearing loss is both those and other disorders.