senseauditory

Senseauditory, also known as audition, is the sensory modality for perceiving sound. It involves detection of mechanical vibrations by the ear, transduction into neural signals, and central processing that yields conscious auditory perception.

Anatomy and physiology: Sound enters through the outer ear (pinna and ear canal), vibrates the eardrum, and moves the middle-ear ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes). The inner ear's cochlea converts vibrations into neural signals via hair cells. Signals travel via the cochlear nerve to brainstem nuclei, then to the inferior colliculus, thalamus, and finally the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. The pathway is organized tonotopically, preserving frequency information at successive stages.

Perception and processing: The brain extracts pitch, loudness, and timbre; localizes sounds using interaural time and level differences; and performs auditory scene analysis to separate competing sound sources.

Development and clinical aspects: Senseauditory develops prenatally and is essential for language learning. Hearing loss can be conductive, sensorineural, or mixed; age-related loss (presbycusis) affects high frequencies and speech understanding.

Measurement and technology: Hearing is evaluated with audiometry and related tests; otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses aid diagnosis. Interventions include hearing aids, cochlear implants, and bone-anchored hearing systems.