Middle Ear Research Paper

Anatomy and Functions of the Middle Ear
The middle ear contains many important parts that necessary for hearing sounds. The middle ear consists of the structures enclosed in a space right behind the eardrum. They are the tympanic membrane or eardrum. The tympanic membrane is a thin membrane shaped like a drum that separates the outer ear from the middle ear. Next is a chain of three ossicles, or very small bones. The chain begins with the malleus, which is connected to the center of the tympanic membrane. The other end of the malleus is connected to the incus. The incus is the middle of the chain and attaches the malleus to the stapes. The stapes is the smallest and last of the three ossicles. It has one end attached to the incus with the other end almost fills the oval window which is a oval shaped membrane that begins the inner ear (As described in Figure 6.1). The chain of ossicles makes up the smallest bones in the body (Yost 71).
One of the middle ear's main operations is to take sound waves and turn them into vibrations. Once a sound wave reaches the tympanic membrane, the membrane vibrates like a drum and the vibration is transmitted to the malleus, which is transferred to the incus and
A function of the middle ear is an impedance matching between the air in the outer ear and the fluid in the inner ear. There are three things that help us deal with the 30dB loss. One of them is the area difference between the tympanic membrane and the ossicles which makes up about 24.7dB. As sound vibrations pass from the large area of the tympanic membrane through the ossicles, which have a smaller area, their force is concentrated. This concentration increases the sound just before it passes through the oval window and into the inner ear. Like a woman wearing high heels, the weight of the woman is concentrated to a very little