Structures/Functions
As the first step we discuss in the auditory pathway, the ____ is the fluid-filled, spiral-shaped hollow organ that lies within the inner ear that is responsible for mechanotransduction.
What is the cochlea?
Tinnitus, the perception of a ringing sound without an acoustic source, is hypothesized to be the result of spontaneous firing patterns and altered coherence between this structure of the auditory pathway and the auditory cortex.
What is the medial geniculate nucleus (or body) of the thalamus?
The superior olivary complex enables the localization of sound and improved hearing in loud environments through binaural information processing. This region of the superior olivary complex supports sound localization through processing timing differences in auditory stimulus between the left and right ear
What is the medial superior olive?
The ________ nerve (CN ___) carries signals from the cochlea. From there, fibers bifurcate, carrying signals to the _____ and _____ cochlear nuclei in the rhombencephalon.
What is the vestibulocochlear nerve, CV VIII?
What are the dorsal and ventral cochlear nuclei?
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome (WKS) is an uncurable disorder of the brain resulting from vitamin B1 deficiency, often linked to alcoholism. While detrimental to the brain as a whole, it is particularly known to affect a pre-thalamus checkpoint of the brain more than other areas.
What is the inferior colliculus?
The superior olivary complex enables the localization of sound and improved hearing in loud environments through binaural information processing. This region of the superior olivary complex supports sound localization through processing intensity differences in auditory stimulus between the left and right ear
What is the lateral superior olive?
After making their way through the superior olivary complex and lateral lemniscus, they arrive at the _______ ________ which is part of the mesencephalon. Here, sound is integrated and localized.
What is the inferior colliculus?
Acoustic neuroma is a resultant of a non-cancerous growth on the vestibulocochlear nerve (cranial nerve VIII) that puts pressure on surrounding structures. It can affect signal strength and propagation past the cochlea and results in hearing loss. It has been attributed to damage in this region of the auditory pathway.
What are the cochlear nuclei?
Similar to other sensory pathways, such as visual, auditory processing projects a certain organization onto neurons that goes by this special name.
Tonotopic organization
From the inferior colliculus, signals make their way to the _____ ______ _____ in the thalamus which is responsible for filtering and processing features such as pitch, timing, and intensity.
What is the medial geniculate body or nucleus?
Auto-immune inner ear disease causes damage and destruction through the body's immune system to important structures dedicated for signal transduction, reducing strength of auditory signals and hearing loss. These structures are located in the cochlea.
What are inner ear hair cells?
The localization of sound requires unusually rapid neurotransmission. For this reason, in addition to favoring glycinergic inhibition over the slower GABAergic neurotransmission, several structures of the auditory pathway have specialized receptors for this neurotransmitter to enable faster excitatory connections.
What is glutamate?
From the medial geniculate body, tracts join and signals travel to the _____ _____ in the ____-encephalon where they are further processed and categorized
What is the auditory cortex in the telencephalon?
Damage to this structure of the auditory pathway has been shown to impair the perceptual and conceptual processing of sound information from everyday objects. (For example; the ability to imagine the sound a bell makes)
What is the auditory association complex?
While we mainly think of auditory processing, we immediately think of the primary auditory pathway in which information is sent to the auditory cortex. There is another lesser-known pathway called the non-lemniscal pathway that deals with unconscious perception of sound. Unconscious perception of sound is necessary for hearing protection through contraction of the middle ear through this process.
What are acoustic reflexes?