Ears - how are yours hearing?

Hearing , is when undulations in air pressure act on the ear drum, and what is perceived is sound . Sensory acuity can vary much from one organ to the other, and from one individual to another. The physical events that equate to a sensory stimulus need not be perceived. If so, then if at the time of the "Big Bang" there were gaseous molecules bounced around, then had there been an organ to perceive, there would have been sound; but, if not; then was all that - a silent Bang! Let the digression remain nonplus.

The auditory function for clinical efficiency is split into a conductive, and a neural part. The outer ear, the outer canal, the tympanus, the middle ear small bones form the conductive function. And, add the Eustachian tube to this function. A patent Eustachian tube allows air pressure to equalize between the middle and outer ear. One example, with modern air travel a rapid rise or drop in height can give a mild stuffy head feel. For quicker relief of this feel one might do repeated swallowing while drawing from or forcing air into the mouth cavity, to accord with whether one is rising or dropping, respectively.

Wax in the auditory canal, reduced patency of the Eustachian tube, a hole in the tympanic membrane, thickened and scarred ossicle joints, and the size and shape of the outer ear, are separately and together, aspects of conductive function of the organ to listen. Reduced efficiency of any of the above factors lessens perceptual acuity.

A spiralling tapered cavity in the skull that houses the nerve cells that sense vibrations is called the cochlea. The cochlea in addition to giving us hearing helps to give a sense of position, like if you are blind folded, and you still know which is up and which is down. As with any perception, the brain is the necessary interpretive center (don't leave home without it). The sensory apparatus of the cochlea, the nerve from it to the brain and the part of the brain that interprets the stimuli, are (is) the neural part in hearing.

If you have an astute ear (or even two) and good tonal discernment you have an instrument(s) worthy of protection.

Conductive hearing loss is medically easier to counter than is a neural component impairment. Did you know that this organ can engage in fraudulent behavior? Well, it does it, sometimes. Yes, the cells in the cochlea can go metabolically awry and cause ringing in the ear, called tinnitus, and the perception is without a physical stimulous.

Music is one way to experience that one is alive. With modern electronic gadgetry boring tranquility can easily be replaced with deafening music. Can music be deafening? Though in theory you know that it can be so, in real, the sense of what loudness can you expose yourself to for how long to avoid hearing loss is not innately sharply defined.

Because modern technology can place the instrument of sound creation into very close proximity to the tympanic membrane it is moot to discuss energy drop-off with distance for this energy type. The ambient sound of an in the ear speaker compared to the in the room speaker seems very small, comparatively. The intuitive assessment of potential harm from this small device might be deceiving.

The perceptual reduction from chronic noise exposure is here interpreted as a neural component loss. ( Even if music has aesthetic rhythm and tonal harmony, because it has the same potential for harm, here I encase it in the same rubric as noise.)

From a single industrial survey of auditory harm from noise, I submit that the first dip in the perceptual threshold occurs at 4,000 cycles per second frequency. This frequency is within the frequency range of normal speech.

So, if you want to consider if an in the ear device can, conceivably, do harm, read how energy concentration of air conducted sound multiplies as the source distance is reduced.