Week 9
This week included a lecture about human auditory systems and a start for the exercise about sensory systems. The lecture starts with an overview about the basics of hearing, of which most of us are familiar with. One thing I had not considered was how large the dynamic range of humans really is, and how extraordinary it is that we possess such a feature. I was familiar with the structures that reside in the general area of the ear, but this lecture helped to go more in-depth with said structures and their functions. For example the attenuation reflex to loud sounds was completely new to me, and extremely fascinating how specifically sudden loud sound causes damage. The introduction of the tonotopic gradient on basilar membrane was novel and very interesting as well. The whole perspective of depolarization within the hair cells was another new concept, which I had not consciously thought of in that context, but intuitively I knew must had been the case all along. Out of all these concepts I think the most fascinating for me was how localization of sound actually works in the human ear. It made me wonder about other animals without ear lobes, and if their localization of sounds is inferior in comparison. Another interesting week!
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