front 1 audition | back 1 the sense or act of hearing |
front 2 frequency | back 2 the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (for example, per second) |
front 3 pitch | back 3 a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency |
front 4 middle ear | back 4 the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window |
front 5 cochlea | back 5 a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear; sound waves traveling through the cochlear fluid trigger nerve impulses |
front 6 inner ear | back 6 the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs |
front 7 sensorineural hearing loss | back 7 hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; the most common form of hearing loss, also called nerve deafness |
front 8 conduction hearing loss | back 8 a less common form of hearing loss, caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea |
front 9 cochlear implant | back 9 a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea |
front 10 place theory | back 10 in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated |
front 11 frequency theory | back 11 in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch |