How Hearing Works

Our sense of hearing is an amazing and complex system. On its most basic level, it works by the ears picking up sounds, translating them to electrical impulses, and transmitting them via nerve fibers to the brain where they are received and interpreted. Below you can learn how different parts of the ear make hearing possible.

Parts of the ear

Outer Ear: What we commonly call the ear is also known as the pinna. It helps establish the direction sound is coming from and funnel it into the ear canal. The outer ear also includes the thin membrane that is the eardrum. The eardrum translates sounds into vibrations and transmits them to the middle ear.

Middle Ear: The middle ear contains the three smallest bones in the human body: the malleus, incus and stapes. Set in motion by the eardrum, their coordinated movements transmit the world’s wide range of sound to the inner ear.

Inner Ear: Each ear has a small, fluid-filled structure called the cochlea that contains about 20,000 hair cells. These tiny hair cells are responsible for translating sound vibrations into electrical impulses. The electrical impulses travel along the auditory nerve to the brain, which determines what the sound is.