Scientific American: Psychology
Infographic Activity 3.3: Can You Hear Me Now?
Can You Hear Me Now?
Side effects of lifesaving drugs given to the triplets as newborns eventually led to deterioration of the inner ear, home of the delicate structures where vibrations are converted to electrical and chemical signals that the brain understands as sound. Without this conversion, sound waves may enter the ear, but we do not “hear.” Hearing is a process in which stimuli (sound waves) are mechanically converted to vibrations that are transduced to neural messages. If one part of this complicated system is compromised, hearing loss results. In the triplets’ case, cochlear implants provide a sense of sound.
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1. Missy is on a first date with Travis, and he is admiring the jewelry she is wearing. She has a string of jeweled earrings on one earlobe, and he likes the colors she has chosen. “I really like the earrings you wear,” Travis tells her. Missy really wants to impress Travis with how much she has learned in her psychology class, so she says, “Thanks! I really like the way they accent my ________.”
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2. The middle ear is made up of three tiny bones that transmit vibrations to the inner ear. Which of the following is the correct order of those three tiny bones from first to last?
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3. Aminta was born without the ability to hear because of damage to one of the structures in her ears. Her parents decide that they want to help her to be able to ear, and decide to get her a type of hearing aid that will be implanted in her head that will bypass this damaged structure and will directly stimulate her auditory nerves. What kind of instrument will Aminta be receiving?
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4. Which part of the ear vibrates when initially struck by sound waves?
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5. When walking along the beach one evening, Richard notices a snail that has washed up on the sand. He admires the beautiful markings on the snail’s spiral-shaped shell, and thinks to himself that the snail reminds him of a structure found in the human ear. What structure is he imagining?
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6. Which action in the ear is responsible for creating the action potentials in the auditory nerve that send sound signals to the auditory cortex in the brain?
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