Hearing, auditory perception, or audition is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding medium through time, through an organ such as the ear. Sound may be heard through solid, liquid, or gaseous matter. It is one of the traditional five senses; partial or total inability to hear is called hearing loss.
In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system: mechanical waves, known as vibrations are detected by the ear and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain (primarily in the temporal lobe). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of mechanosensation.
There are three main components of the human ear: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.
The outer ear includes the pinna, the visible part of the ear, as well as the ear canal which terminates at the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane. The pinna serves to focus sound waves through the ear canal toward the eardrum. Because of the asymmetrical character of the outer ear of most mammals, sound is filtered differently on its way into the ear depending on what vertical location it is coming from. This gives these animals the ability to localize sound vertically. The eardrum is an airtight membrane, and when sound waves arrive there, they cause it to vibrate following the waveform of the sound.
Hearing is the sense by which sound is perceived.
Hearing may also refer to:
The term hearing or hearing person, from the perspective of mainstream English-language culture, refers to someone whose sense of hearing is at the medical norm. From this point of view, someone who is not fully hearing has a hearing loss or is said to be hard of hearing or deaf. The continuum of hearing ability tends to be broken down into fine gradations. Moving down the scale and further away from the medical norm, people are classed as hearing, then slightly hard of hearing, moderately hard of hearing, severely hard of hearing, and finally deaf (severely deaf or profoundly deaf for those furthest from the norm).
However, when examined in the context of Deaf culture, the term “hearing” often does not hold the same meaning as when one thinks simply of a person's ability to hear sounds. In Deaf culture, “hearing”, being the opposite of “Deaf” (which is used inclusively, without the many gradations common to mainstream culture), is often used as a way of differentiating those who do not view the Deaf community as a linguistic minority, do not embrace Deaf values, history, language, mores, and sense of personal dignity as Deaf people do themselves. Among language minorities in the United States – for example, groups such as Mexicans, Koreans, Italians, Chinese, or Deaf users of sign language – the minority language group itself has a “we” or “insider” view of their cultural group as well as a “they” or “outsider” view of those who do not share the values of the group. So, in addition to using “hearing” to identify a person who can detect sounds, Deaf culture uses this term as a we and they distinction to show a difference in attitude between people who embrace the view of deaf people who use sign language as a language minority, and those who view deafness strictly from its pathological context.
Hearing, auditory perception, or audition is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding medium through time, through an organ such as the ear. Sound may be heard through solid, liquid, or gaseous matter. It is one of the traditional five senses; partial or total inability to hear is called hearing loss.
In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system: mechanical waves, known as vibrations are detected by the ear and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain (primarily in the temporal lobe). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of mechanosensation.
There are three main components of the human ear: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.
The outer ear includes the pinna, the visible part of the ear, as well as the ear canal which terminates at the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane. The pinna serves to focus sound waves through the ear canal toward the eardrum. Because of the asymmetrical character of the outer ear of most mammals, sound is filtered differently on its way into the ear depending on what vertical location it is coming from. This gives these animals the ability to localize sound vertically. The eardrum is an airtight membrane, and when sound waves arrive there, they cause it to vibrate following the waveform of the sound.