Hearing and the Vestibular System

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Introductory Human Physiology

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Duke University

Introductory Human Physiology

1743 ratings

In this course, students learn to recognize and to apply the basic concepts that govern integrated body function (as an intact organism) in the body's nine organ systems.

From the lesson

The Senses and the Somatic Nervous System

In this module, we consider two types of cells: one that relays information to the central nervous system (brain) for interpretation and a second set, motor neurons which relay information away from the central nervous system to govern voluntary movement. The input pathway to the brain is mediated by specific cells called senses. The senses convert energy (such as light or heat) into an energy form (electrical potentials) recognized by neurons in the brain. The brain, in turn, interprets this information (as vision or pain) and then sends out a motor response via the motor neurons of the somatic nervous system to effector cells in the body. The motor neurons activate skeletal muscle to control breathing and the movement of the limbs. The things to do this week are to watch the 5 videos, to answer the in-video questions, to read the notes, and to complete the problem set. It will be most effective if you follow the sequence of videos. The notes provide a more detailed summary of each topic. We encourage you to find which resource (videos and/or notes) works best for you and to try the problems sets. The problem sets are not graded. Both your understanding and retention will increase with application of the new learned information.

Introduction and Vision29:46

Hearing and the Vestibular System15:49

Chemical Senses7:59

Meet the Instructors

Jennifer Carbrey
Assistant Research Professor
Department of Cell Biology
Emma Jakoi
Associate Research Professor
Department of Cell Biology

Welcome back.

We're going to continue our consideration of the special senses,

talking about the hearing and vestibular system that are gonna be found in the ear.

We're gonna start off with the auditory system that is gonna detect sounds and

it's going to be detecting sound waves which are gonna be compression and

expansion of air molecules in the forms of waves.

So it's gonna be waves that are expanded air.

And compressed air that are alternating to form waves.

And it's going to be the amplitude of the wave,

the height of the wave that's gonna determine volume of the sound.

And then it's gonna be frequency of the waves that

is going to determine the frequency or the pitch of the sound.

And so that's how we interpret these sound waves into

the noises that we actually hear.

So the auditory system is gonna be able to detect complex sounds

by breaking them into their basic sound frequencies and

then they're obviously gonna be converted into action potentials.

And, volume is going to be relayed by the frequency of action potentials.

So the louder a sound is, the more frequent the action potentials are.

And we'll talk about how pitch, or

the frequency of the sound is gonna be determined, as well.

So now we've got to get involved in the anatomy of the ear,

that's obviously gonna be critically important in to how we hear.

Where the sounds are going to be focused onto the tympanic

membrane, or the ear drum by the auditory canal and

then we're gonna have a set of three bones, the malleus,

incus and stapes that are going to transduce the vibrations

of the tympanic membrane to vibrations in the fluid

of the cochlea which is gonna be in the inner ear.

So here's a zoomed-in portion of the middle ear and

the inner ear, the middle ear being where we have

the three bones that are going to rock next to one another

when the tympanic membrane vibrates from the sounds,

that's gonna cause them, malleus, incus and stapes to rock and

cause the vibrations at the oval window of the cochlea.

So this is zoomed-in picture of the cochlea.

Where we're gonna have two different fluid paths and

we'll see about this in the next figure as well.

But here's the oval window where we have it being vibrated from

the tympanic membrane, transduced by the bones and

then causing the oval window to be vibrated.

And I forgot to mention, but these bones are so

important for amplifying the vibrations.

So that's what their crucial role is.

Because out here in the outer ear we have vibrations

of air, but then we need to cause vibrations in fluid.

Which is gonna be much less efficient and require much more energy to cause the same

amount of vibration of a fluid compared to vibration of the air.

And so, that's the role of these three bones, is to amplify the vibrations from

the air, so that it can cause significant vibrations in the fluid of the cochlea.

So that's what's gonna happen when this oval window is vibrated.

It's gonna be strong enough to transduce the vibrations from the sound

waves in air to vibrations in a fluid.

And the fluid vibrations are going to first enter

this top compartment, the scala vestibuli.

And then, those are gonna travel down the cochlea.

And so if you unrolled it, it would just be a single tube.

So the vibrations will go down the scala vestibuli,

and then come back around towards the second fluid pathway,

which is in the compartment called the scala tympani.

And we'll see how that vibration coming through the scala tympani is what's

gonna cause the vibration that's gonna activate the basilar membrane to vibrate.

So you can see here are the two fluid compartments.

And sitting between it is what's called the organ of corti.

And that's what we're going to see in this next diagram.

So here we have a zoomed-in view of the organ of corti

where at the top we have the scala vestibuli.

And remember that is the fluid that's right behind the oval window.

So when the oval window gets vibrated,

then that will cause ripples of fluid to travel down the scala vestibuli.

Those will travel all the way down the cochlea, make a u-turn, and

come back the scala tympani, and

right above the scala tympani is the basilar membrane, and

that, on top of that sits hair cells that have these

hairs that are embedded in the tectorial membrane.

So the tectorial membrane is gonna be stationary, and you've got hairs that

are embedded in it sitting on the basilar membrane, which is going to vibrate.

And so, as that happens, that is going to move these hairs on the hair cells.

And bending of those hairs is gonna cause depolarization or

hyperpolarization, depending on which direction.

And so, based on which portion of the basilar membrane

along the length of the cochlea that's vibrating the most,

that's gonna determine the frequency or the pitch of the sound.

So once the hair cell is going to be activated then that's gonna

activate an afferent neuron which are going to join to form the cochlear nerve,

which is going to then send it to the rest of the brain for processing.

And as I just said, the region of the basilar membrane that's gonna vibrate

the most is gonna correlate with the frequency of the sound.

And then the louder the sound, the greater the vibration and

the greater frequency of action potentials.

So it gets into the idea again that the brain is gonna know that signals

coming from this particular neuron that feeds from a specific

portion of the basilar membrane means that there's a certain

frequency of sound and then the frequency of action potentials

to tell the brain the loudness of that frequency of sound.

We're gonna move to the vestibular system, which is going to be able to detect

different types of motions of the head or the body.

They're gonna be in the inner ear.

They're gonna be able to detect angular acceleration, so

changes in the angle of your head, as well as linear acceleration,

changes in the horizontal or vertical plane as well.

And we're gonna have two different organs.

One are gonna be the semi-circular canals,

which are gonna respond to changes in head rotation.

And otolith organs, which are going to be able to detect the tilt of the head,

as well as vertical or horizontal movement,

with there being two different otolith organs, the saccule and the utricle.

So again, let's understand the anatomy, where again this is gonna be in the inner

ear adjacent to the cochlea, where we are gonna have three

semi circular canals which are gonna be tubes with fluid in them.

And it's convenient that there's three and they're at 90

degree angles from one another, which allows us to detect changes

in the angle of the head along the three perpendicular axes.

So one of the canals is going to be highly stimulated when we nod yes,

versus one when we shake no, versus a third when we tip our head side to side.

And if you're doing some sort of combination of those,

then there'll be multiple of the two canals that are activated.

Also on this diagram it shows the otolith organs, the utricle and

the saccule that are these little compartments

kind of between the semicircular canals and the cochlea.

So we said, the semicircular canals are gonna be these tubes that are full of

fluid, and then sitting in the loop is gonna be the cupula,

which is going to be these hair cells that have extensions that are in the fluid.

And so as our head rotates,

then the canal or the tube is also going to rotate, but

the fluid is actually going to stay relatively stationary.

And so, it's the movement of the tube or the canal with those hair cells, and

the stationary aspect of the fluid that is going to cause tugging or

pulling on these hair cells and causing the action

potential eventually to signal that we're having movement in that direction.

This is my demonstration of a semi-circular canal where if you tilt

your head, the canal that's attached to the heb is also going to tilt but

the fluid which is in the canal will primarily remain stationary.

And in this way with the fluid remaining stationary and

the canal tilting that's what signals to that

apparatus attached to the hair cells, and lets you know that your head is tilted.

Let's move to the otolith organs which are gonna again involve hair cells.

So this is a common theme, or the idea of cells with extensions like hairs.

And these are going to, as we've said, detect changes in linear acceleration or

in the position of the head, as in, if it's tilted.

And at the ends of these tips of these hair, there's gonna be gel.

They're gonna be sitting in this layer of gel and then on top of that are gonna be

otoliths, which are gonna be calcium carbonate crystals

that are in this gel that is found at the tips of the stereocilia.

And since they're calcium carbonate, they're very heavy.

And so that means that a change in the position of the utricle or

saccule is gonna cause those calcium carbonate crystals, the otoliths,

to be pulled by gravity and then to pull on the tips of the stereocillia,

which will be the signal that there's been movement or change in position.

So the utricle based on its orientation in the body

is going to detect movement in the horizontal plane.

While the saccule because it's at 90 degrees is going to detect vertical

movement, so movement going up and down.

This is animation showing you the movement of the head or

the body and the response by the otolith organs.

So here you see the hair cells with their stereocilia sticking

up into this blue here shown as blue gel with these green

otoliths that calcium carbonate crystals that are going

to pull on those stereocilia and elicit a response.

So here when we tilt the head backwards.

Then you can see that, because gravity is gonna act on those otoliths,

since they're so heavy.

That is gonna cause them to pull on those stereocilia.

Whereas, when we tilt forward.

Then the otoliths are gonna be pointed in the other

direction pulling on the stereocilia.

And then when we have forward acceleration what's happening is that those otoliths,

since they're so heavy and dense,

they have greater inertia than the rest of the body.

And so it's like they stay in place while the rest of the body goes forward and

that's what causes the tugging.

So it's actually very similar to what happens when you tilt your head backwards.

And then when you decelerate, it's gonna be the opposite.

The otoliths are gonna kind of stay in place,

while the rest of the body moves backwards.

So I'll let you watch it again.

We're tilting and acceleration or

deceleration are gonna cause very similar changes in the otoliths.

Or forward acceleration similar to tilting your head backwards.

And deceleration is gonna be similar,

causing a similar effect as tilting your head forwards.

So, finishing this section up, we talked about the auditory system.

How we are gonna be able to detect complex sounds

by breaking them into their basic sound frequencies, and

then, being able to determine the volume of each of those basic frequencies.

And this is going to be obviously converted into action potentials and

then sent to the brain for interpretation.

And then the vestibular system is going to aide us in maintaining

our balance, in part by knowing where our body is in space.

And we're gonna be able to detect position and motion of the head.

And they're gonna be found with these sensory,

hair-like cells that are gonna be found in the semi-circular canals,

as well as in the otolith organs, the utricle and the saccule.

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