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- Glossary
Stirrup
The stapes is the third ossicle in the middle ear and the smallest bone in the human body. It transmits its vibrations to the oval window, behind which the inner ear begins.
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- Percipience
- Hearing
What we actually hear
Our ears are always tuned in. But what exactly are they picking up?
03.10.2025
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- Percipience
- Hearing
Full Blast to the Ears
Noise not only makes you ill, it also damages your brain.
18.11.2025
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- News
- Question to the brain
How does a cochlear implant work?
How does sound reach the brain with a cochlear implant?
27.04.2025
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- Topic
Pain
Pain – considered by the ancient Greeks to be the “barking watchdog of health” – spans all scales of the nervous system.
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- Glossary
Anvil
The middle of the three ossicles in the middle ear transmits the vibration from the malleus to the stapes.
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- Glossary
Cochlea
The cochlea is the part of the inner ear that contains the organ of Corti, which is responsible for converting acoustic signals into nerve impulses.
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- Glossary
Corti’s organ
The organ of Corti is part of the cochlea (hearing organ) in the inner ear. Here, sound waves are picked up by hair cells and converted into nerve impulses.
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- Glossary
Ossicles
The three bones located in the middle ear – the stapes, malleus, and incus – are known as the ossicles. These are the smallest bones in the human body. They mechanically transmit sound waves from the eardrum to the cochlea.
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- Glossary
Hair cells
Sensory cells in the inner ear located in the organ of Corti and the semicircular canals. The hair cells in the organ of Corti are responsible for transducing (converting) the vibrations into electrical potentials. Each of these sensory cells has hair-like protrusions of varying lengths, called stereocilia. These are interconnected. The movement of these stereocilia caused by the vibrations is the key to signal transduction in the hair cells.
