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Part of the inner ear
Answer for the clue "Part of the inner ear ", 7 letters:
cochlea
Alternative clues for the word cochlea
Word definitions for cochlea in dictionaries
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. the snail-shaped tube (in the inner ear coiled around the modiolus) where sound vibrations are converted into nerve impulses by the Organ of Corti [also: cochleae (pl)]
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ The word cochlea reflects their resemblance to snail shells.
Usage examples of cochlea.
This membrane extends the length of the cochlear canals, and is stretched between a projecting shelf of bone on one side and the outer wall of the cochlea on the other.
From here the vibrations pass through the channels of the cochlea and set into vibration the contents of the scala media and different portions of the basilar membrane.
With bone forceps or a fine saw, split open the petrous portion of the temporal bone and observe the cochlea and the semicircular canals.
It is the cochlea that contains the sense-receptors making it possible for us to hear.
The cochlea is not a single coiled tube but, rather, is a triple one, all coiling in unison.
The upper part of the cochlea, which leads from the stapes and the oval window, consists of two tubes, the vestibular canal and the cochlear canal, separated by a very thin membrane.
An interesting question, though, is how the cochlea enables us to distinguish differences in pitch.
To solve the problem of pitch perception, the cochlea must be considered in detail.
The sound waves entering the cochlea by way of the oval window travel through the fluid above the basilar membrane.
As it is, though, when the sound waves cause the stapes to push into the cochlea, the round window bulges outward, making room for the fluid to be pushed.
The Hungarian physicist Georg von Bekesy has conducted careful experiments with an artificial system designed to possess all the essentials of the cochlea and has found that sound waves passing through the fluid in the cochlea set up wavelike displacements in the basilar membrane itself.
The basilar membrane of the cochlea can undergo displacements in response to any sound, musical or not.
The delicacy with which we can distinguish pitch and the total range of pitch we can hear depend on the number of hair cells the cochlea can hold and therefore on the length of the organ of Corti.
The acoustic nerve, which leads from the cochlea, has a branch leading to the other half of the contents of the internal ear, the utricle and its outgrowths, introduced on page 248.
His eerie stutter spiraled down her cochleae to the bottom of her ears and seemed to leap from there into her spine, vibrating from vertebra to vertebra, shaking shivers from her.