Since tinnitus may be caused by natural hearing loss due to aging, or a symptom of some other problem with the ear, causing the sufferer to hear sounds which may not be coming from an outside source, I thought a sensible step would be to have a look at the organ that gives us all this trouble, the ear itself.
Let's nip inside, go for a walk and take a look around.
Perhaps arguably, it's the most incredible and fascinating part of the whole human body.
The ear consists of five parts.
1.
The outer ear.
2.
The middle ear.
3.
The inner ear.
4.
The nerve pathways.
5.
The brain.
No, we won't be entering the realms of brain surgery, I assure you, but we will have a very quick look at how the ear and the brain interact.
So let's start at 1, The outer ear.
This is named the Auricle and is the part we can see.
This outer part is so shaped that it collects sound waves and carries them towards the ear drum.
The lobe and outer ear canal are all part and parcel of this first part.
Not too very much to see here.
Let's walk a bit further and enter the threshold of the middle ear.
Number 2.
This looks a lot more interesting, because you can actually see the ear drum.
It's unbelievably thin.
No wonder they shatter or tear occasionally.
Look, there are three little tiny bones there.
They're named the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup, or stapes.
They all look like their names, don't they? Watch the ear drums vibrate.
Amazing, isn't it? The tiniest sound is picked up and the drums are so thin that they'll pick up that sound.
Sound's very much like water, in that it travels in waves.
Then those tiny little ear bones, the hammer and anvil and what have you.
That's how the sound vibrations are carried across the middle ear space.
Look, you can actually see the stapes moving.
Now.
You see that little canal? That's called the eustachian tube and you see the way it connects the back of the nose to the middle ear chamber? Fascinating, isn't it? This eustacian thingy maintains equal pressure between the middle ear and the great outdoors.
If it didn't, the whole shooting match would collapse! Oh boy, we'd better tread carefully now.
This is Number 3, the inner ear.
My word, look at the thickness of those walls.
The whole inner ear's protected like that.
It's all enclosed in dense bone.
Has to be, of course.
Things are so delicate and tiny in here.
Actually, the inner ear's made up of two distinct parts.
The Cochlea, which is what's know as the organ of hearing, and the Vestibular labyrinth, which helps you keep your balance.
The Cochlea, small though it is, is divided into three more compartments.
See them? Those tiny little strands of tissue? The real business of hearing occurs in the middle compartment in which you can see that fluid.
You see those minute hair cells bathing in that fluid? Well, Number 4, they undergo a change and turn into electrical impulses.
Now, don't touch this, but you see that long, incredibly fine hair-like piece? Well, that's the auditory nerve to the brain, along which those electrical impulses travel.
The nerve pathways, those little bony tubes, carry the nerve that gives us our balance, and another one that operates our facial muscles, among other nerves.
Lordy, we're nearly into the actual brain now, Number 5.
You see the way the nerve endings divide as they reach the brain? From thereon in, it's an incredibly complicated system.
The recognizable sounds we hear are the nerve impulses being transmitted to a part of the brain behind the temple.
And that's basically that.
I do hope you've enjoyed your tour through Earland