A person may wonder how they hear, how sound passes into their ear, and how a

person may lose their hearing.

How does a persons hearing work? The outer ear consists of the pinna, and the ear
canal. The pinna is the outer shape of your ear. The ear canal is made out of bone and
skin, it leads into the eardrum. The ear has a cuplike shape and has that structure because
it gathers sound energy.
What conductive hearing loss? Conductive hear loss is when there is a problem
conducting sound waves anywhere along the outer ear, tympanic membrane, which is the
eardrum, or the middle ear.
There are many ways to lose a persons hearing in a conductive way. A person can
lose it with wax built up in the outer ear and that may stop sound from reaching the
eardrum. They can also lose it if they have syndrome or any other genetic reason. Another
way to lose it is by the small bones in the middle ear, which are called ossicles. These
small bones can stiffen and that will prevent sound from passing easily through the inner
ear. These types of hearing loss can be corrected with surgery or medically. If the persons
hearing loss is permanent, they can use middle ear implants.
What is sensorineural hearing loss? Sensorineural hearing loss is when there is
damage to the inner ear, or in the nerve pathways from the inner ear to the brain. The hair
cells can be damaged. These hair cells are responsible for electrical signals that the brain
needs in order to interpret sound. It damages the hair cells in the cochlea. With this
hearing loss you cant always tell which part is damaged. This type of hearing loss is very
difficult to correct medially and surgically. You cannot hear faint sounds, even when

someone is talking loudly, a person may find it unclear or as if the other person is
muffling.
There are many ways to get sensorineural hearing loss. You can get it by aging.
Gradual deterioration, or it becoming worse, commonly occurs for both ears in the highpitched sounds. You can also get it by a disease called Menieres disease. This is build-up
of excess fluid in one part of the inner ear cause pressure that affects the hearing and
balance organ. This disease may cause tinnitus. Tinnitus is when there is ringing or
buzzing in the ears. Another common type of hearing loss that is sensorineural is when a
person is exposed to loud noises. Also, if you bang your head too hard, it may fracture the
skull and cause damage to the cochlea or the hearing nerve.
The cochlear implant can help a person get their hearing back. The cochlear
implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner
ear. It sits behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically under the skin. The
implants have a microphone that picks up sound from your surroundings. It also receives
signals from the speech processor and converts them into electric impulses. The implant
does not give a person their hearing back. It gives a deaf person a useful representation of
sounds from your surroundings and helps them to understand speech better, including
helping them to hear clearer.
A cochlear implant not the same from a hearing aid. Cochlear implants pass
damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. The signals that are
generated by the implant are sent by the way of the auditory nerve to the brain. That
makes the sounds be recognized. Normal hearing is very different from an implant. The
cochlear implant takes time to learn or relearn.

The auditory and the vestibular nerve help in a lot of ways. The auditory nerve
basically carries information between the cochlea and the brain. The vestibular nerve
carries balance of information from the semicircular canals to the brain. The semicircular
canal is three fluid-filling bony channels in the inner ear. Each of these join together as
they pass through the bony canals of the skull. When these two come together they are
called the 8th cranial nerve. Passing through the bony canals of the skull, ones again, is
the 7th cranial nerve. The 7th cranial nerve supports facial expression and sensation. Most
of the nerve fibers carry information back to the cochlea from the brain. The cochlea can
then use this information to fade out the sounds you are not interested in, like the
background noises.
Hair cells have a big part in the way the hearing works. Hair cells detect
movement in the environment. They transform a mechanical motion into changes in the
membrane potential. When one form of energy, for example the mechanical, is changed
into another form of energy is called transduction. When sound goes into your hear, it
stimulates the hair in the ear to become active. The stereocilia are the mechanosensing
organelles of hair cells. They respond to fluid motion.
A person might wonder why their hair cells getting damaged. Imagine seaweed.
When there are waves coming at a high speed, they make the seaweed get weaker. If that
keeps on happening it will rip off from the floor at one point. Well that is what happens
with a persons hearing, if there is a load noise coming into a persons hear, the hair cells
will go off at one point as the seaweed did.