Word: cochleae
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...eardrum in turn causes three tiny bones inside the ear to vibrate. The last of these bones taps against a snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure called the cochlea, which houses the hair cells that produce the TRPA1 protein...
Vibrations passed onto the cochlea change the pressure of the fluid inside, and the cilia generate mechanical force by moving back and forth...
These people have lost their hearing usually because disease has destroyed the functioning of the cochlea, a snail-shaped organ the size of a pea. Inside the cochlea are thousands of microscopic cells that transmit sound as electrical signals through the auditory nerve to the brain...
Ineraid duplicates this function. A tiny microphone, worn around the ear, is connected to a microprocessor, which turns sound waves into electrical impulses and feeds them through the implanted wires into the auditory nerve. Six of the wires are implanted in those areas of the cochlea that would normally transmit different frequencies, from high to low. The remaining two wires are grounded to muscle tissue to complete the electrical circuit. Says Parkin: "It's like taking the cochlea outside the head and putting it on your belt...
Three Canals. Man's external ear, even at its best, is merely decorative, and the transmission of sound waves through the canal and eardrum to the tiny vibrating bones (ossicles) is a relatively simple matter of sound mechanics. When the vibrations reach the cochlea, they are converted, by a somewhat more complex process, into electrical impulses for transmission to the brain along auditory nerves...