Inner Ear

What are the parts of the inner ear?

Your inner ear includes two parts: the cochlea (which supports your hearing) and the vestibular system organs (which support your balance).

Parts for hearing

Your cochlea is a snail-shaped organ within your inner ear that helps you hear. It’s filled with fluid that moves in response to sound waves and is split into three tubes by two thin membranes. One of these membranes — the basilar membrane — is like an elastic wall, on top of which sits the organ of Corti. The organ of Corti contains tiny hair cells with stereocilia at the ends. Stereocilia are delicate, hair-like projections that react to cochlea fluid movement.

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Here’s how your cochlea turns sound waves into sounds:

1. Sound enters your outer ear and hits your eardrum, causing the tiny middle ear bones (malleus, incus and stapes) to move.
2. The stapes is in the oval window (a small hole) in your cochlea. When the stapes moves, it makes ripples in your cochlea’s fluid.
3. This ripple moves the stereocilia at the ends of your hair cells like an ocean current moves plants on the seafloor.
4. This movement of the stereocilia sparks an electrical signal that your hearing nerve carries to your brain. Your brain perceives the electrical signal as sound.

Parts for balance

The structures inside your inner ear that help you balance are part of your vestibular system. They include three fluid-filled semicircular canals and two otolith organs (the saccule and utricle).

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Here’s what the parts are and what they do:

• Semicircular canals: Semicircular canals are tubes coiled within your inner ear. Like the cochlea, the canals are lined with hair cells. Instead of sound waves, these tiny hairs react to body movements. They’re mostly responsible for sensing rotary motion, or motion not in a straight line, like when you turn or tilt your head.
• Otolith organs within the vestibule: Your saccule and utricle contain tiny hairs and crystal-like structures called “otoconia.” They sense movement in your body when the fluid within your inner ear shifts. The utricle and saccule are mostly responsible for sensing when your body moves forward or backward, or up or down.

Movement of hair cells triggers an electrical impulse that travels from your vestibulocochlear nerve, or the 8th cranial nerve, to your brain. Your brain perceives the electrical signal as information about your balance.

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