5.4 Hearing — How Your Brain Turns Pressure Waves Into Sound | Psychology 2e

This lesson walks through the full journey of sound — from a pressure wave entering the outer ear all the way to a neural signal reaching the brain. Covering Section 5.4 of OpenStax Psychology 2e, the discussion unpacks the anatomy of the ear, two competing theories of pitch perception, and how the brain pinpoints where sounds come from. The lesson closes with a look at hearing loss, cochlear implants, and the cultural significance of Deaf communities. In this video: • How sound waves travel through the pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, and the three ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes) • Why the ossicles act as an amplifying lever system to move fluid inside the cochlea • Hair cells on the basilar membrane and how their mechanical bending generates neural impulses • Temporal theory vs. place theory of pitch perception — and how both work together up to about 4,000 Hz • Monaural cues (pinna shape) for vertical sound localization and binaural cues (interaural timing and level differences) for horizontal localization • Conductive vs. sensorineural hearing loss, including Ménière's disease, hearing aids, and cochlear implants • Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and why many in the Deaf community view deafness as identity rather than impairment #OpenStax #Psychology #Hearing #Neuroscience OpenStax Content adapted from "OpenStax Psychology 2e", by OpenStax licensed under CC BY 4.0. Content based on Web Version: Apr 23, 2026. Read the textbook online https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e Music first girl talking to me. by ikkun (ex. Barradeen) | https://soundcloud.com/ikkunwastaken Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US