The organ of human hearing: structure, function and meaning in social life

"The inability to see separates man from things.

The inability to hear separates a person from people. "

Emmanuel Kant

A person perceives information from the outside world with the help of five senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, which not only inform him of any changes in the external environment, but also warn about possible danger. As a result, a person acquires a certain life experience. On the basis of this experience, the acquired behavior of a person is formed.

The structure of the human hearing organ is anatomically represented by the outer, middle and inner divisions. The outer ear includes the auricle, the auditory S-shaped canal and the tympanic membrane - the tendon plate, which is very tightly taut. The main function of this department of the hearing organ is to protect the middle and inner divisions, as well as to capture and conduct sound waves to the middle ear.

The middle ear is a cavity that is filled with air and accommodates the Eustachian tube and auditory ossicles - a hammer, an anvil and a stapes. The purpose of this department is to amplify and conduct sound vibrations that come from the tympanic membrane. The auditory ossicles are a very complex anatomical structure, they are movably and consistently connected to each other. The malleus, adhering to the inner side of the tympanic membrane, transfers its oscillations to the anvil and stapes. And it, in turn, is tightly connected with the oval window of the inner ear.

The Eustachian tube, which exits at one end into the middle ear cavity, and the other into the nasopharynx cavity, ensures equal air pressure in the middle ear.

The inner part of the hearing organ is filled with liquid and consists of an oval window, a snail and a Corti's organ. The oval window, perceiving sound vibrations from the auditory ossicles, transfers them to the cochlea, which is a twisted channel. The main membrane of the cochlea, located in the middle of this anatomical structure, consists of strained fibers, above which the organ is located - the main auditory receptor. The vibrations of the coil of the cochlea are perceived by the sensitive hairs of the Corti's organ and transmitted through the auditory nerves to the auditory zone of the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres, where the sound sensations are formed.

The organ of human hearing is of special significance. Hearing, as well as the organ of human taste, is fully formed in a newly born child, who recognizes the mother's voice immediately after birth. Any sound fluctuations of the air, affecting the organ of hearing, make it possible to understand what is happening around. It is the human hearing organ that allows you to exist in a social environment, to receive oral speech, to communicate with others and to engage in social and work activities. Speech is able to bind together different people, regardless of the difference in culture, religion or skin color. If there is no verbal exchange between two people, then, as a rule, between them there is distrust and unconscious rejection.

If there is a hearing loss in early childhood, the child loses the ability to reproduce words and pronounce them. And although healthy people value hearing much less than vision, it is the human hearing organ that allows it to maintain a closer connection with the surrounding world, since it can not be "turned off" even in a dream.

Hearing is the most acute and most perfect feeling. The number of sound vibrations perceived by the hearing organ is millions of times smaller than the number of molecules to which the human olfactory organ reacts. As a result, a person can distinguish between a huge range of a wide variety of sounds and, most importantly, very accurately determine the distance to their source. The human hearing organ has such a complex structure that none of the most modern technical devices can replace it.

And even though a deaf-mute or hearing-impaired person can recognize sound information by gesturing or moving the lips of another speaker, he can not catch the emotional coloring of words. As well as he can not fully convey his mood with gestures. All people are part of the sound world. And those who for some reason lost their hearing in adulthood, say that they perceive this loss very hard, because they are isolated from the external sound world.

Hearing is considered the most intelligent sense organ, because the system of recognition of sounds is very closely related to the limbic system that is responsible for human emotions. For example, listening to music can awaken a wide variety of feelings - from joy and admiration to gloom and sadness. Congenital or acquired at an early age defects of the hearing organs can entail not only severe intellectual and cognitive, but also social and psychological developmental defects. Man, as a purely social being, experiences a real emotional drama along with hearing loss.

Thus, all our five senses are not equivalent. The most important is hearing, which is fundamental for determining the social attributes of a person. Hearing allows you not only to perceive information of a different nature from outside, but also to get knowledge, to experience strong emotions. It serves for social communication, warns of danger and helps to avoid it.