The Ear - Pathway of Hearing

Auditory Phonetics
How to Handle Speech
UBielefeld
 What is Sound?
“ ... a sound is any disturbance of air that
could cause a displacement of the eardrum
which, after transmission by the bone chain,
could affect the liquid in the inner ear in
such a way that the auditory nerves are
stimulated.”

(Ladefoged, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, pp.2-3)

 How Sound Travels
“The source of sound causes movements of
the air particles in its immediate
neighborhood; these movements cause
disturbances in the air a little farther away
from the source; these air particles in their
turn affect their neighbors which are still
farther away from the source; and so the
disturbance spreads outward.”
(Ladefoged, ibid, p.3)
Just Another Sound: The Human Voice

• voice: fluctuations of air pressure > caused

by rapid opening and closing of vocal folds

• pressure rises to a maximum, then falls

steadily to a minimum before rising again to
repeat the cycle, all within a small fraction
of a second
 Varying Air Pressure
• maxima: peaks above 0
• minima: valleys below 0
• peaks of air pressure <=>
air particles close together
• moments of low pressure
<=> air particles furthest
apart

THINK: What about sound in a vacuum?

 Hearing vs. Perception
• ear (peripheral auditory organ): hearing >
sound reception & sound transformation

• auditory organ (includes central nervous

system; central auditory organ): perception
> interpretation of semantic contents
Our Auditory Field
 The Ear
• outer ear
– protection,
– transmission of sound
• middle ear
– transformation into and transmission of mechanic
vibrations
• inner ear
– transformation of vibrations into neural impulses
 The Ear

outer ear inner ear

middle ear
The Ear Cont‘d.
 The Path of Sound
• external canal
• vibrates eardrum
• vibration moves through ossicles
– mallet (malleus), anvil (incus), stirrup (stapes)
• stapes vibrates oval window of cochlea
• creates pressure wave in the fluid inside
 The Outer Ear
• Pinna / auricle (Ohrmuschel):
– protects the entrance to the ear canal
– contributes to our ability to locate
sounds, esp. at higher frequencies

• Meatus/outer ear canal (äußerer

Gehörgang):
– pathway for the acoustic signal
– protection of the inner ear
– tube resonator, i.e. favors transmission
of high-frequency sounds (2000-4000
Hz) and generally between 500 and
4000 Hz
The Middle Ear
 The Middle Ear Cont‘d
• Eardrum (Trommelfell):
– is deflected by air pressure variations (= sound)
– the air pressure variations are transmitted to the auditory ossicles
– they convert air pressure variations into mechanical movement
 The Middle Ear Cont‘d
auditory ossicles: mallet, anvil, stirrup
(Gehörknöchelchen: Hammer, Amboss, Steigbügel):
– pick up the mechanical movement of the eardrum and convey it to
the inner ear/oval window
– transformation of air pressure variation into equivalent mechanical
movements
– contraction between anvil and stirrup can reduce amplitude
(protection for inner ear)
 The Middle Ear Cont‘d
• Eustachian tube
(eustachische Röhre):
– narrow tube connecting
pharynx and middle ear
– equalizes air pressure
differences between outer and
middle ear
• oval window (ovales
Fenster):
– interface between middle and
inner ear
– transmits mechanical
movement
 The Inner Ear
• cochlea ((Innen-) Ohrschnecke):
– coil-like structure terminating in a window with a
flexible membrane at each end
– internally divided by two membranes, filled with
cochlear fluid
– converts mechanical movements into neural signals
The Inner Ear Cont‘d -
Cochlea
 The Inner Ear Cont‘d
• basilar membrane (Basilarmembran):
– stiffer at one end than at the other
> sensitive to particular frequencies at particular points
because of the different resonance which is due to
different stiffness
• high frequencies picked up at the stiff end
• lower frequencies at the more flexible end
> conducts spectral analysis of incoming sound
(see animation later!)
The Inner Ear Cont‘d

cross section of one

single turn of the cochlea

(no 5. = basilar membrane)

 The Inner Ear Cont‘d
• Organ of Corti (spiralförmiges Corti-Organ):
– attached along the basilar membrane
– hair cells which get moved and excited
– responsible to transform membrane displacement into neural
signals

1. inner hair cells

2. outer hair cells
3. tunnel of Corti
4. basilar membrane
 The Inner Ear Cont‘d -
Hair Cells
• about 16,000 in each cochlea
• located on the basilar membrane
• do not regenerate
• inner (~ 3,500) hair cells
vs. outer hair cells (~ 20,000)
• stimulated by bending of the basilar
membrane (length a wave travels on the
basilar membrane depends on frequency >
first frequency (spectral) analysis)
• amplitude: lower & medium amplitudes
affect outer hair cells, higher amplitudes
affect inner hair cells
Anatomy of the Cochlea Animated
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/animations/cochl
ea/coc_frames.htm
 The Auditory Nerve
• Auditory nerve (Gehörnerv):
– picks up the neural signals from the organ of Corti
– sends signals to the brain where the information is
processed and interpreted > analytical effects of the
human auditory system
The End