What bends the stereocilia bundles?
- Blinking of the eyes
- The tectorial sheet sliding as the membrane moves
- Heartbeat vibrations only
Where do high and low pitches bend the basilar membrane?
- High at the base, low at the apex
- High at the apex, low at the base
- Both only in the middle
The apex of the cochlea responds to the lowest pitches.
Circle one: True False
How do canals and otolith organs divide balance work?
- Canals report rotation; otolith organs report tilt and straight-line motion
- Both report only loud sounds
- Both report only eye color
Why is hair-cell transduction fast enough to follow sound?
- Signals travel backward in time
- Sound waves pause to wait
- Bending directly gates ion channels
Each ear carries how many semicircular canals? Type the count.
Answer: ______________
Disease kills the hair cells at the cochlear base. What hearing remains?
- Total silence in all ranges
- Only the highest notes survive
- Highs fade, lows survive
A student says the brain sorts pitch from identical nerve signals. What is wrong?
- The brain never hears pitch
- Cochlea sorts by place first
- Nerves carry no signals at all
How the ear sorts pitch and motion W1-mt_qzPAt9JMOZ-s1
- The tectorial sheet sliding as the membrane moves · Membrane motion slides the sheet, which drags the leaning bundles.
- High at the base, low at the apex · Frequency maps to place: base for high, apex for low.
- True · Twenty-hertz waves travel the full membrane to bend the apex.
- Canals report rotation; otolith organs report tilt and straight-line motion · Spinning fluid bends canal cupulae while sliding crystals weigh tilt.
- Bending directly gates ion channels · Mechanical tethers yank channels open with no slow chemical middle step.
- 3 · Three rings, one horizontal and two vertical, span all spin directions.
- Highs fade, lows survive · Base cells serve high pitches; surviving apex cells still report lows.
- Cochlea sorts by place first · Sorting is mechanical: each place fires only for its own frequency.