Hearing with Two Ears
At Cochlear™, we believe that two ears are better than one. For people who are hearing impaired, hearing through both ears can be achieved multiple ways:
- two hearing aids
- one hearing aid and one cochlear implant
- two cochlear implants
Hearing with both ears, called bilateral hearing, can be an advantage in many everyday activities. For example, it may help when crossing a street or listening to your family at the dinner table.
Plus the ability to hear in noisy places, such as a classroom or workplace, may affect performance at school or on the job. If you are considering a bilateral hearing solution for you or your child, talk with your hearing healthcare professional about your options.
Learn about Bilateral control with the Nucleus 5 Sound Processor & Remote Assistant
Hearing all the sounds of everyday life: the auditory system and pathways
In figure 1, sound enters the outer ear through the ear canal and travels to the eardrum. The eardrum vibrates from the sound, which puts the middle ear bones into motion.
Next, vibrations ripple through the fluid in the snail-shaped inner ear, called the cochlea, and cause tiny hair cells in the cochlea to move. The hair cells convert this movement into electric impulses that travel to the auditory nerve which connects to the brain where they are received and interpreted.
In figure 2, the auditory pathway takes the sound from the cochlea and then through the brainstem to reach the auditory cortex in the brain. The neural pathway is directed upward from the same side of the sound input and also crosses over to the opposite side of the brainstem to form the binaural connection. Along this pathway, there are intermediate stations where the signal is further processed before reaching the brain.
The auditory system works best when the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear are fully functional in both ears, enabling them to receive and interpret the sound waves.
