Essay Example on Sound Waves: How We Hear and How Do Humans Taste and Smell

Sound Waves: How We Hear

For hearing to take place, sound waves have to travel into the ear canal until they reach the eardrum. From there, the eardrum passes the vibrations into the inner ear through the ossicles. The inner ear contains the Corti and the cochlea which contains tiny hair cells that change vibrations into electrical signals. These signals are then transmitted to the brain's auditory cortex that alerts the person that they are hearing a sound and the nature of the sound being heard (Breedlove, Watson, & Rosenzweig, 2010).

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There are three types of hearing loss; neurosensory, mechanical/conductive and mixed hearing loss. The neurosensory hearing loss can be identified as hearing loss that is as a result of dysfunction of the hair cells in the cochlea. This dysfunction is caused by age, genetics, viral infections, and benign tumor. Furthermore, Breedlove, Watson, & Rosenzweig (2010) explain that the mechanical or conductive hearing loss blocks the vibrations from reaching the inner ear. Causes of cognitive hearing loss include fluid in the middle ear, lump of wax or a problem with the eardrum. Finally, the mixed hearing loss involves both the neurosensory and conductive hearing loss. Hearing loss affects the balance of an individual in such a way that it is vestibular and balance dysfunction among the individuals who have a sensorineural hearing loss.

The presence of hearing loss has resulted in the development of hearing privilege which is almost similar to black or white privilege. The individuals who can hear have created social traditions that advocate norms or values for those who have the hearing ability. Also, the deaf people are also considered as a minority as the society is contributing to th4e isolation of the deaf people. The insufficient number of ASL-speaking clinicians, educators or evaluators has further contributed to the separation of the deaf people. Moreover, the methods of evaluation or communication are designed to suit the hearing people and thus may hinder the recognition of strengths that the client may have as many psychological tests do not assess these strengths that are unique to deaf people

How do humans taste and smell

Human beings are capable of detecting five primary tastes; sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. The taste receptors in human beings are located in taste buds which can be identified as a cluster of cells. Each taste axon responds strongly to one category of tastes and therefore provides a labeled line to the brain. Furthermore, each taste cell transmits information to several different fibers whereas each afferent fiber receives data from various cells.

Contrary to the ability to detect few tastes, human beings are capable of detecting thousands of different odors due to the presence of numerous olfactory receptor cells and olfactory bulbs. The olfactory cells are bipolar cells that have dendrites extending to the olfactory epithelium in the nose. The unmyelinated axon runs to the olfactory bulb and synapses of the dendrites of mitral cells. Thus there is a large family of odor receptor molecules that utilize the G protein and act as second messengers.

The difference in the tastes and odor that an individual can sense help to identify that human beings like the other mammals depend on smell more than taste and as a result have more olfactory receptors as compared to taste buds. Therefore, the use of both senses can be efficient in the behavior organization of the individual as the combination of the olfactory epithelium and the taste buds which detect pheromones to organize behavior.

Reference

Breedlove, S. M., Watson, N. V., & Rosenzweig, M. R. (2010). Ch. 9: Hearing, Taste & Smell. In Biological Psychology / Sylvius 4 Access Code: An Introduction to Behavioral, Cognitive, and Clinical Neuroscience.