Chris Frazier
Week 6 Assignment
1. The flap on the side of the head is called the outer ear pinna. The outer ear captures the sound then slightly amplifies it by funneling it from the larger area in front. The first part of the middle ear, the eardrum or tympanic membrane, is a very thin membrane stretched across the end of the auditory canal; its vibration transmits sound energy to ossicles. The ossicles are tiny bones that operate in lever fashion to transfer vibration from the tympanic membrane to the cochlea. The inner ear consists on the cochlear canal, that is where auditory receptors are located. The Organ of Corti, the sound analyzing structure that rests on the basilar membrane. The organ of Corti consists of four rows of specialized cells called hair cells, their supporting cells, and the tectorial membrane above the hair cells.
2. The adequate stimulus for audition is vibration in a conducting medium. Normally the conducting medium is air. As the sound source vibrates, it alternately compresses and decompresses the air. To hear we must get information about the sound to the auditory cortex. This requires a series of events including sound reception, amplification, and conversion into neural impulses that the brain can use. The auditory receptors are located in the cochlear canal.
3. Pitch is our experience of the frequency of a sound. Loudness is the term for our experience of sound energy. How loud a sound is depends not only on the intensity but also on the frequency of a sound. Frequency theory which assumes that the auditory mechanism transmits the actual sound frequencies to the auditory cortex for analysis. Place theory states that identifying the frequency of a sound depends on the location of maximal vibration on the basilar membrane and which neurons are firing most.
4. Frequency theory which assumes that the auditory mechanism transmits the actual sound frequency to the auditory cortex. It was believed that the...