Unit 3- Sensation

Course contents
• Meaning,
• importance,
• sensory threshold,
• habituation and adaptation
• Types of sensory experiences,
• structure and functions of Visual and auditory sensation

Introduction
Traditionally, the five special senses have been defined as taste, smell, sight, hearing
and feeling. However, touch is now considered to reflect the activity of the general
senses, and equilibrium, or balance, can be thought of as a new fifth special sense.
In contrast to the general sensory receptors, most of which are modified dendrites of
sensory neurons, the special sensory receptors are distinct receptor cells. They are
either localized within complex sensory organs such as the eyes and ears, or within
epithelial structures such as the taste buds and olfactory epithelium.
The principle function of the special sensory receptors is to detect environmental
stimuli and transfer their energy into electrical impulses. These are then conveyed
along sensory neurons to the central nervous system, where they are integrated and
processed, and a response is produced.
There is no firm agreement amongst neurologists as to exactly how many senses
there are. The disagreements stem from a lack of consensus as to what the definition
of a sense should be. Although it is still routinely taught that there are five senses
(sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste; a classification first devised by Aristotle, it is
generally agreed that there are at least nine different senses in humans, and a
minimum of two more observed in other organisms.
A broadly acceptable definition of a sense would be "a system that consists of a
sensory cell type (or group of cell types) that respond to a specific kind of physical
energy, and that correspond to a defined region (or group of regions) within the brain
where the signals are received and interpreted". Where disputes arise is with regard
to the exact classification of the various cell types and their mapping to regions of
the brain.
The five senses
• Vision
• Hearing/ Auditory sense or Audition; also associated with maintenance of
bodily balance
• Smell/ Olfaction
• Taste
• The skin sensations/ Kinesthetic sense; touch, pressure, temperature, and pain.

Stimulus
It is a source of physical energy that produces a response in the sense organs. The
energy could be sound waves, light waves, and heat pressure to which an organism
is capable of responding. A sensation is a response to that energy by a sensory
system. Stimulus and sensation have cause and effect relationship. The quality of a
stimulus refers to the kind of sensation it produces.
Example: Color----- visual stimulation
Musical pitch------auditory stimulation
The quantity of a stimulus refers to the amount of stimulus present.
Example: brightness, loudness
Stimuli vary in both type and intensity. Different types of stimuli activate different
sense organs.
Example: A light stimulus that activates our sense of sight and allows us to see the
color of a tree is called type. A sound stimulus that permits us to hear the sound of a
musical instrument is called type.
How high a light stimulus needs to be before it is capable of being detected is
intensity. How much perfume a person must put on before others notice it is termed
as intensity.
Meaning of sensation
Sensation It is the process by which an organism’s sense organs respond to a
stimulus. It is the process whereby stimulation of receptor cells (in the eyes, ears,
nose, mouth, and surface of the skin) sends nerve impulses to the brain. After
reaching the brain they are registered as a touch, a sound, a taste, and a splash of
color. Hence, sensation can be thought as an organism’s first encounter with sensory
stimuli.
It is a physical feeling of perception resulting from something that happens to or
comes in to contact with body. Sensation is a type of feeling picked up by one of the
five sense.
Sensations can be defined as the passive process of bringing information from the
outside world into the body and to the brain. The process is passive in the sense that
you do not have to be consciously engaging in a ‘sensing’ process. If a person is
unable to organize or interpret the sensations, then everything around will be
jumbled. So the sense organs collect the information from the stimulus around and
send it to brain, the brain processes this information and tries to give it some
meaning. There is not much difference between sensation and perception. The
process of detecting a stimulus, such as light waves (vision), sound waves (hearing),
chemical molecules (smell and taste), heat or pressure (touch) is called as sensation.
It is the first response of the organism to the stimuli. Different type of sensations has
different traits. For example, the motor, organic and spatial sensations have different
characteristics which actually distinguishes them from each other. These different
sensations have got different degree of strength and intensity. The intensity depends
upon two factors the objective strength of the stimulus and the mental state of the
individual.
The initial contact between organisms and their physical environment
constructing knowledge out of raw materials is known as sensation.

This definition of sensation has the following components:

1. involvement of sense organs of the organism.
2. presence of stimulus in the physical environment
3. constructing knowledge out of raw material and
4. initial contact i.e. contacts without meaning.

Take an example: you encounter the pleasant fragrance of a rose. You get the
fragrance through the sense organ ‘nose’. Rose is the stimulus present in the
physical environment. You feel something and it is constructing knowledge out
of raw stimulus material. You just have the initial contact without clear cut
knowledge of source i.e. rose. Feeling up to this stage is sensation. Imagine some
other example of similar nature and try to understand the meaning of sensation.
 Sensation is the starting point of knowledge of presence of any object around
us.

Hence, sensation is the process of acquiring sensory information from the

receptors and converting it into action potential. Every moment are sensory
receptors receive large amount of input which is scrutinized by attention processes.
The information that is attended to is sent to the brain through the neural network
and the brain then begins to give meaning to it.
Importance
• Sensation is the starting points for all other psychological processes. They
supply the data we use for learning and remembering for thinking and problem
solving, for communicating with others, for experiencing emotions, and for
being aware of ourselves. Without sensation, we would not form thoughts or
feelings. Seeing picture, hearing song, touching flower etc. are different kinds
of mental experiences that accompany an activity of the eyes, ears and skin.
Which are the sense organs. The mental experiences connected with their
activity are known as sensory experiences. Sensations are assumed to be
perfectly to be simple and primitive physical processes. We can say that
sensation is a primary and basic passive mental state resulting from the impact
of an external stimulus on a sense organ. Hence without sensation a person
cannot have the sense of vision, hearing/ auditory sense or audition; also
associated with maintenance of bodily balance, smell/ olfaction, taste, the skin
sensations/ kinesthetic sense; touch, pressure, temperature, and pain.

Division of sensation
We receive sensation from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the skin, which are our
five sense organs. The sensation can be divided into three types, organic sensation,
motor sensation and special sensation.
1. Organic sensations are those sensations which are because of internal organs.
These sensations are not because of any external stimulation. Hunger is
considered to be an organic sensation which occurs because of the
contradiction of walls of the stomach. Thus these type of sensations indicate
that the internal condition of the body do not relate to the external stimulus
present around us. Some type of organic sensations can be located, for
 example the burning sensation or cutting sensation, in which case the exact
location of the sensation is known.

Sometimes one feels tired or restless or there is some amount of discomfort.

In such conditions it becomes difficult to know the exact location of the
sensation but it is assumed that the sensation is spread over the entire body.

2. Special sensations are those which are caused by the specific sense organs
like eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin. These special sensations can be
differentiated from each other. The source of the special sensations is external.
They give information about the outside environment. It becomes easy to
locate the special sensations but most of the times it becomes difficult to locate
organic sensations. These special sensations are more intense in both the
quality and the quantity than the motor or the organic sensations.
3. Visual sensations are only activated or stimulated because of the light waves.
These type of sensations are experienced through the sense organ of eye. The
visual sensations can further be classified into two types. These two types of
visual sensations are sensation of brightness and sensation of color. Color
sensation means identifying and differentiating four types of basic colors.
A color blind person does not identify these four basic colors which are blue, red,
yellow and green. Every object which comes in front of the eye reflects special kind
of light. The object brings about a chemical change in the eyes which is carried to a
special part of the brain for information. Sensations includes the physical changes as
well as changes in the mental processes.
Sensory Thresholds
Any Sensory system must have the ability to detect varying degree of energy in the
environment. This energy can take the form of light, sound, chemical or mechanical
stimulation. How much of a stimulus is necessary for you to see, hear taste, smell or
feel something? How far away from a brewing coffeepot can you be and still detect
the smell or coffee? Researchers studying the links between the physical properties
of stimuli and persons experience of them. For example, an experiment might
examine the relation between the rate at which a light flashes and a participant’s
ability to see individual flashes. There are two types of threshold.
a. Absolute threshold: It is the smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be
present for it to be detected. For a stimulus to be detected by our sense organs
it must become strong enough.

The following research findings on absolute threshold are taken from the
works of Galanter (1962) as cited in (Feldman, 1996)
• Sight: a candle flame can be seen 30 miles away on a dark, clear night.
• Hearing: the ticking of a watch can be heard 20 feet away under quiet
conditions.
• Taste: A teaspoon of sugar can be detected in nine liters of water
• Smell: A drop of perfume can be detected when one drop is present in
a three-room apartment.
• Touch: The falling of a bee’s wing from a distance of one centimeter
can be felt on a cheek.
b. Difference threshold: it is the smallest detectable difference between two
stimuli. A noticeable difference depends on the value of the initial intensity
of the stimulus. Example: When the moon is seen in the late afternoon, it
appears relatively dim. When it is seen in the dark, it seems quite bright.
Weber’s law: The law states that ‘the just noticeable difference is in constant
proportion to the intensity of an initial stimulus.” Weber’s law in
psychophysics explains the relationship between changes in the original value
of a stimulus and the degree to which the change will be noticed.

Example: If a one-pound increase in a ten-pound weight produces a just

noticeable difference, it would take a ten-pound increase to produce a
noticeable difference in a hundred pounds. The noticeable difference in the
case of loudness becomes larger for sounds that are initially loud than for
sounds that are initially soft.

Example: A person in a quiet room is more sensitive to the ringing of a

telephone than a person in a noisy room. In order to produce the same amount
of sensitivity in a noisy room, the ring has to be very loud.
Sensory Input, sensory adaptation and habituation.
Imagine that you're sitting in the park on a lazy afternoon, just enjoying the quiet
and the sunshine. Suddenly, you hear a loud bang!
Sensory input is information sent to us from the environment. It includes things like
sight, sound, smell, temperature, and more.
We are receiving sensory input at all moments. Think about that quiet moment in
the park. It might seem like you're not really receiving any sensory information, but
you are: your eyes are observing the trees and sunshine, your ears are hearing the
chirping of birds, and your skin is telling you how warm the sun is.
The purpose of sensory information is to help us survive. If we had no senses, we'd
be completely cut off from the world around us. As a result, we wouldn't be able to
live, eat, move, or even stand up!
A big part of survival is identifying threats to us. Think back to that moment when
you heard the loud bang in the park: your heart rate probably jumped up, and you
quickly looked around to see what had caused it. The sound triggered a warning in
you that there was something in the environment that might be a threat.
In order to identify threats, we are sensitive to changes in our environment. That
loud bang was different from the rest of the afternoon in the park, and so your
reaction would be swift.
But what if you looked around and found that the loud bang came from a nearby
construction site? Even though the loud noise may continue, you won't continue to
be alarmed by it. This is because if something doesn't pose a threat, we become
desensitized to it.
Let's look closer at the ways that we become desensitized to stimuli, including
adaptation and habituation.
Adaptation
Let's go back to the park. You hear a loud bang, your heart races, and you look
around and see the construction site. The bangs and loud noises continue as your
heart returns to normal.
After a few minutes, an odd thing starts to happen: the construction noise seems to
fade a little. Are they doing their construction work more quietly?
No. What you're experiencing is adaptation. This occurs when sensory processing
becomes less sensitive to stimuli. Think about it like this: you're adapting to the noise
from the construction site, so it's not as loud.
Adaptation happens all the time. Think about when you walk into a dark room; it's
almost impossible to see anything! But after a while, you can begin to make out
shapes and outlines.
Or think about when you first spill a bottle of perfume. The scent is overwhelming!
But after a while, you don't smell it as strongly anymore.
So in short, Sensory adaptation is an adjustment in sensory capacity following
long period of exposure to stimuli. It is the tendency of receptor cells in the sense
organs to respond less and less to a constant stimulus. Adaptation occurs as a result
of prolonged exposure to stimuli, a change in the attitude and expectation of the
individual.
Example: Repeated hearing of a musical sound in a bar makes a person to adjust as
if it were softer. When you enter into the dormitory with a distinct odor, the smell is
very noticeable at first, but soon it seems to fade. One explanation for decline in
sensitivity to sensory stimuli is the inability of the sensory nerve receptors to
constantly carry messages to the brain. They stop reacting to constant stimulation.
The sense of smell and touch adapt quickly. Pain adaptation is slower. However,
sensory adaptation occurs with all the senses.
Sensory habituation
Sensory habituation is a term used as the simplest form of learning process of
understanding physical energy from environment. It occurs as the decrease in the
strength of a response after repeated presentation of a stimulus that elicits a
behavioral response, for example getting use to a light’s intensity. Constant exposure
leads to a decrease in response arousal and therefore this technique is commonly
used in therapeutic settings as a basic process used to extinguish various fears.
Principles of habituation
There are Five Principles of Habituation:
1. Course of Habituation: When a stimulus is repeated, habituation of a response
occurs (decrease in sensitivity as a result of an increase in familiarity).
2. The Effects of Time: If a stimulus is withheld for a period of time, habituation
decreases.
3. Relearning Effect: If habituation to a stimulus has occurred in the past but is
withheld for a period of time and then re-administered, the stimulus will take
less time to re-habituate.
 4. Effects of Stimulus Intensity: Organisms can habituate too weak to moderate
stimuli but very strong stimuli may not result in habituation.
5. Stimulus Generalization: Transfer of habituation occurs from one stimulus to
another.

The Characteristics of Habituation

Some of the key characteristics of habituation include the following:
• If the habituation stimulus is not presented for a long enough period before a
sudden reintroduction, the response will once again reappear at full-strength,
a phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery.
• The more frequently a stimulus is presented; the faster habituation will occur.
• Very intense stimuli tend to result in slower habituation. In some cases, such
as deafening noises like a car alarm or a siren, habituation will never occur.
• Changing the intensity or duration of the stimulation may result in a
reoccurrence of the original response.
• Habituation can generalize to similar stimuli.

Our senses and sensory experiences

a. Vison and sensation
The greatest gift of our life is vision through which we know most of the things about
the outside world. It dominates in our adjustment. This is why of all the senses
scientists have done much researches in the area of vision. We see through our eyes.
This is like a color television camera. The physical stimulus i.e. light admits into it
through a small hole and passes through lens that focuses an image on a
photosensitive surface. The vision is managed through the cornea, pupil, iris and
retina in the eyes and receptor cells transmit finally the information to the brain via
optic nerve. Sensation of color takes place by nerve cells called cones. Black and
white sensation takes place by optic nerves called rods. Rods and cones are
distributed on retina, the number being more than 100 million and 6 million
respectively.
b. Hearing and auditory sensation
Auditory sensations are received through the ears. They are the reactions of the ear
to the sound vibrations. Ear through which sensation of hearing takes place is a
fascinating instrument. You have two ears on two sides which detect sound from the
external world. Sound source produces changes in air pressure by vibrations or
movements. It is noticed and registered through the ears.
c. Taste sensation
Taste sensations can be felt by the tongue. The tongue is equipped with taste cells
grouped into taste buds and these are the receptors that receive the gustatory
stimulus.
There are five basic taste sensations that can be distinguished by tongue alone. These
are sweet, sour, bitter and salty plus the taste of metallic substances.
Tastes primarily depend upon the taste buds scattered across the upper surface and
side of tongue. Each taste bud contains several receptor cells. Human beings possess
about 10,000 taste buds.
Normally, sensitivity to salt is highest on the tip and sides of the tongue. Sour is
detected on the sides of the tongue and bitter on the back of the tongue. This view is
based on widely held hypothesis that each of these primary taste qualities is
associated with different kinds of taste receptors. Further, question about the stimuli
that produce these four basic taste qualities, the answer is not definite.
Sweet is produced by various sugars, but also by saccharin, a chemical compound
that is structurally very different from sugar. Just what these substances have in
common which activate the same taste receptors is still not known.
The number of taste buds on the tongue decreases with age. As a result, older people
are comparatively less sensitive to taste than children are.
d. Olfactory/ smell sensations
Olfactory sensations are located in the nose. The nose detects the smell and sends it
to the brain and odor is then perceived. Smell is also a chemical sense. The sense of
smell gets activated when gaseous particles of a substance come in contact with the
nasal fluids. The receptors of smell are spindle shaped cells embedded in the
olfactory tissues, which are connected to the olfactory nerve. Smell is directly
connected to the brain. The receptors in the nose which are present in the olfactory
epithelium of each nasal cavity are directly connected to the olfactory bulbs of the
brain which are positioned just below the frontal lobes in the brain. The olfactory
bulbs are also connected to the olfactory cortex on the inside of the temporal lobes
and are there till the neighboring cortex. One important characteristic of the sense of
smell is that it is adaptable.
For example, if you come across a very unpleasant smell, this smell seems
unbearable at first but the nose adjusts to it after some time. It has been found that
after a brief period of intense stimulation most of our sense organs does not show
much response. This characteristic of adaptability of the olfactory sensation is a
natural protective mechanism.
Human beings have only about 50 million of olfactory receptors whereas dogs
possess more than 200 million such receptors. Dogs are more sensitive to smell,
therefore, they are put in Dog squad to detect crime and criminals in police
department.
e. Skin sensation
The skin detects the sensation of pressure, warmth, cold and pain. There are
specialized nerve endings which react to a specific type of stimuli for each type of
cutaneous or skin sensation. Different parts of the body have different degrees of
sensitivity for the various stimuli. Some parts are more responsive to touch, others
to pain, some to heat and some to cold. The fingertips and the lips are the two most
responsive parts to touch or pressure. The fingertips are also responsive to pain. One
square centimeter on the tip off the finger is reported to have sixty pain spots. In a
similar manner it is found that the cornea of the eye has many pain spots but no touch
spots. The specialized receptor nerve endings are located deeper in the skin tissue.
When the skin feels the sensation of pain because of pinching, pricking or cutting
then the stimulation goes below the general protective layer of skin. When the skin
is exposed to extreme heat or cold then it penetrates into the skin and there is
sensation of pain. The internal organs inside the body are also more or less
insensitive to pain.

f. Motor sensation/ Kinesthetic Sense

These sensations are related to motion. Pulling and contractions are types of motor
sensations. They are caused by the muscles, tendons and joints. The brain receives
the information from these sensations through the sensory nerves. Motor sensation
cause pressure on the skin. The sensory impulses from muscles, tendons and joints
which control the coordination of body movements is called as kinesthetic sense.
Thus it may be referred to as the awareness of body movements. Nerve endings from
the muscles, tendons and joints connect with the nerve pathways to various parts of
the brain for registering kinesthetic sensations. These sensations are used from
muscles and tendons as cues for performing many activities. These type of
sensations usually give conscious attention to the responses of our muscle and
tendon senses. The kinesthetic sense mechanism helps in maintaining muscle control

Structure and function of eye and ear

Structure of the Eye: Vision
The structure of the eye includes the following:
1. Cornea – the cornea is a round and transparent area in the eye which allows light
to pass into the eye. The amount of light is regulated by the pupil.
2. Lens – the lens is a transparent structure in the eye that focuses light on the retina.
3. Retina – the retina is another important part in the eye which is actually an inner
membrane of the eye that receives information about light using rods and cones.
The retina carries the information.
4. Fovea – it is the most sensitive part of the eye in the daylight.
5. Pupil – pupil is the opening at the center of the iris which controls the amount of
light entering the eye. It dilates and constricts. Constriction and dilation is
controlled by the autonomic nervous system. The parasympathetic division of
the brain controls the change in pupil size as a function of change in illumination.
6. Rods and Cones – Rods are the visual receptors which help in the vision during
the night. Rods are more than the cones. Rods are considered to be good for
peripheral vision because there are more on the periphery of the retina.
7. Cones - Cones are the visual receptor cells that are important in daylight vision
and color vision. The cones are not effective in dim lighting. This is why it is
more difficult to see colors in low light. The cones are mostly in and around the
fovea but decrease as you go out rods - visual receptor cells that are important
for night vision and peripheral vision. The rods are better for night vision because
they are much more sensitive than cones.
 Diagram of an eye

How We See/ How the eyes function-

The light waves from the object enter into the eye through the pupil and pass through
the lens. The true receptor of the visual stimuli is the retina. The optic nerve is
attached to the retina and serves as a medium for carrying the visual impulses to the
nervous system. The retina has two kinds of receiving cells the rods and the cones.
They are so named because of their shape. The cones are concentrated in the center
of the retina and the rod cells on the outer margin. The proportion of cone cells to
rod cells decreases as you proceed from the center to the outer edge of the retina. In
the center of the retina, there is a small depression which is referred to as fovea. This
part is considered to be the point of greatest concentration and therefore the area of
sharpest vision during the day light. The rods are used for twilight vision or light of
low intensity and can be used to make only the colorless discriminations. The cones
are meant for day vision which are meant for low intensity and it also helps in
viewing the colors.

Some phenomena of eyes during its function.

i. Night vision and the Purkinje phenomenon
As discussed earlier for daylight vision humans rely on cone cells and for
the night vision on rod cells. At twilight when day and night meet both the
cone vision and rod vision function together. The eye adapts to
discriminate colors as the day and night merge. At the first part of twilight
one can still distinguish red, yellow green and blue although they are not
very bright. Then at a particular point of diminished light the colors start
becoming bright. This change is called as Purkinje phenomenon.
ii. Night blindness
It is a common fact that many people are not able to see properly during
the night. This condition is known as Night blindness. Such type of people
suffers from a visual problem to adapt to the conditions of low
illumination. They have acute problem with the rod cells in the eye. They
have deficiency in the pigment layer of the retina which supplies a very
important substance known as visual purple. This substance which is
actually a chemical compound decomposes in the presence of light and
recombines in darkness. Various types of chemical analyses have shown
that the visual purple is dependent upon vitamin A for nutrition.
iii. Blind spot and after images
There is one point in the retina where there are neither cones nor rods. This
spot is not sensitive to any light stimulation and is referred to as blind spot.
This is the point where the optic nerve is attached to the retina. Another
phenomenon related to visual sensation is known as after images. If a
person keeps looking at a bright object and then it is suddenly removed,
then the person will continue to see images of the object. A person is apt
to feel he is seeing things which are not there. Thus after image is the visual
sensory experience which persists after the external stimulus has been
removed. The longer the original stimulus, the stronger will be the after
image. The explanation of after images is that the nerve impulses set up in
 the retina by a stimulus outlast the stimulus. This is because of the time
gap between the period when the stimulus is removed and the time it takes
to travel along the paths of the nervous system or conscious mental
processes.

There can be two types of after images, positive after images and negative
after images. In the positive after images the same kind of detail, brightness
and color of the original impression is experienced after the object is
removed.

In the negative after images the color or pattern which is complimentary to

that of the original image is seen. The example of negative after image is,
if you look at a pure black surface for some time then the negative after
image will be white or grey.

iv. Color blindness

The inability of some people to distinguish certain colors is called as color
blindness. The people who are color blind cannot see red and green color.
They only see five colors. These five colors which color blind people can
actually see are yellow, blue, black, white and grey. All the green and red
objects appear grey to them. The person who has a normal vision is referred
to as trichromatic because he can distinguish the three systems of colors
light-dark, yellow-blue and red-green. An individual who cannot
distinguish one of these systems is called as dichromate. A person who can
only distinguish light and dark system is called as monochromatic or
totally color blind. It is believed that the color blindness is because of some
defect in the fovea.

v. Visual constancy: Visual depth perception

Perception is always oriented towards an object and not the sensory
features which describe the object. When they receive things they are
perceived as stable and permanent. So people start identifying things
irrespective of the change in their color, size or shape.

vi. Color constancy: Constancy movement perception

The color constancy refers to the tendency to see the color of a familiar or
known object as the same irrespective of the change in the actual light
 conditions. This means that the familiar objects retain their color under a
variety of lighting conditions.

For example, an individual having a white dog sees his dog as white
whether in the bright sunlight, in very dim light or in yellow light. This
person has in his memory the color of his dog as white which contributes
to color constancy. vii. Shape constancy This refers to humans’ ability to
see the shape of a familiar or known object as same irrespective of the
change in the angle from which it is viewed.

Structure of ear and its function.

The outer ear is made of a canal and the eardrum (tympanic membrane).
The middle ear has three bones: the malleus, the incus and the stapes, the Latin
names. The English equivalent of these terms are hammer, anvil and stirrup.
The inner ear contains a snail-shaped structure called cochlea with fluid inside. The
function of the three parts of the ear is different but related to one another. Changes
in air pressure are received in the outer ear eardrum and the membrane moves in
response to the pressure changes. The middle ear sends sound waves to the inner ear
with movements in the three bones. These vibrations are transmitted to the fluid
inside cochlea. At this point the sound waves reach the receptor cells for hearing and
are translated into nerve impulses. The auditory nerve sends the nerve impulses into
appropriate portion of the brain. This way, you are able to hear a sound around you.
You may be aware that these days’ noise pollution has become one of the greatest
environmental hazards. Why is it so? The answer is — when the cells of the inner
ear are very frequently bombarded with loud sounds these can be damaged leading
to hearing loss. Many million people of the world suffer from hearing loss due to
noise pollution. You, therefore, in your life try to avoid noise both by reception or
by creation. Always speak in low voice which shows politeness and discourage
others to speak in loud voice. This will keep your hearing intact and others too
throughout your life.
How We hear/ function of ear
Hearing occurs when sound acts as a stimulus to the auditory sense. Sound consists
of alternative waves of condensation and rare fraction in the form of vibrations in
the air. These are known as sound waves. Sound waves generally strike the tympanic
membrane or eardrum.
Just beside the eardrum is the middle ear which has three parts, hammer, anvil and
stirrup. The inner ear connects with the middle ear by an oval shaped window into
which is fitted the stirrup. The inner ear is filled with lymph fluids and contains a
small snail like structure called the cochlea. This structure is very important for
hearing. Just above the cochlea is a section called as the organ of corti which contains
the minutely sensitive hair cells. These hair cells are considered to be the
fundamental units of the auditory receptors like the cones or rods in vision.
There are many theories about hearing. Piano theory was developed by Helmholtz.
He postulated that each element or hair cell of the organ of corti responded to a
specific vibration to which it is tuned much lie the string of a piano. Because of this
fixed tuning different vibrations are distinguished as different sounds.
Other theory is called as wave pattern theory. According to this theory variable
sounds qualities of pitch result from the combined action of many nerve fibers rather
than any single element. All the sound waves are not heard by the ear. The ear only
responds to sound waves having a vibration frequency from 25 per second to 20,000
vibrations per second.