SPHSC 461
Study Questions on Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear and Auditory Pathways
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Some possible short-answer questions. Answers could be a few sentences long (at most) or a graph or a drawing perhaps.
1. Draw the head-related transfer function for a sound source located at 0° azimuth. answer
2. Name two ways that the head-related transfer function of the right ear will change if you move a sound source from 0° azimuth to 40° (clockwise) azimuth. answer
3. Name two of the three ways that the middle ear increases the amplitude of sound delivered to the inner ear. answer
4. Draw the transfer function of the middle ear. answer
5. Draw a cross-sectional representation of the cochlea showing the scala tympani, the scala vestibuli, and the scala media. Label the three scalae. Label Reissner’s membrane, the basilar membrane, the stria vascularis, and indicate where the organ of Corti would be. answer
6. Draw a longitudinal representation of the cochlea showing the scala tympani, the scala vestibuli, and the scala media. Label the oval window, the round window, and the helicotrema. answer
7. Name three structural differences between outer and inner hair cells. answer
8. Draw the traveling wave envelopes on the basilar membrane that would result from my playing two tones, one at 8000 Hz and one at 250 Hz. Label the curves with the appropriate frequency. answer
9. Describe, in a few sentences, how the transduction process in the hair cells works. answer
10. How is the traveling wave envelope related to the tuning curve of a single fiber in the eighth nerve? answer
13. Draw a poststimulus time histogram of an auditory nerve neuron. answer
14. Describe the afferent and efferent innervation of inner and outer hair cells. answer
15. Draw a schematic of the major nuclei (bilateral) in the auditory nervous system and label them. Show the major pathways between the nuclei. answer
Some true/false questions:
1. In mammals, the pinna serves no real function. answer
2. The two major contributors to the resonant properties of the external ear are the ear canal and the spherical head. answer
3. The tympanic membrane overlies the hair cells in the organ of Corti. answer
4. The mass of the middle ear is the primary factor determining its transfer function. answer
5. The acoustic reflex provides good protection from intense, short-duration sounds. answer
6. The basilar membrane is narrower at the base than at the apex of the cochlea. answer
7. The traveling wave envelope on the basilar membrane is just as sharply tuned when the hair cells are alive as when the hair cells are dead. answer
8. Otoacoustic emissions are a sign that the hair cells are damaged. answer
9. The stria vascularis maintains the normally high resting potential across the organ of Corti. answer
10. Auditory neurons never respond when they are not stimulated by sound. answer
11. The neurons in each auditory nucleus have the same function. answer
Some fill in the blank questions:
1. The two major parts of the external ear are the __________and the _____ ____________. answer
2. The ossicles of the middle ear are the _________, the _______, and the _________. answer
3. The middle ear acts to match the ___________of air to that of the cochlear fluids. answer
4. The most likely way that outer hair cells sharpen the traveling wave envelope is through their____________. answer
5. Neurons that carry information from the ear to the brain are called _________; neurons that carry information from the brain to the ear are called __________. answer
6. The ________________ ____________ is maintained by the stria vascularis.answer
7. The first part of the brain to get a projection from both ears is the _______________ ___________. answer
Some definitions:
transduction answer
phase locking answer
adaptation answer
otoacoustic emissions answer
tonotopic organization answer
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Last Updated:
Saturday 26-Mar-2011 4:17 PM