The ear consists of three parts that play a vital role in hearing—the external ear, middle ear, and inner ear.

• Conductive hearing: Sound travels along the ear canal of the external ear causing the ear drum to vibrate. Three small bones of the middle ear conduct this vibration from the ear drum to the cochlea (auditory chamber) of the inner ear.
• Sensorineural hearing: When the three small bones move, they start waves of fluid in the cochlea, and these waves stimulate more than 16,000 delicate hearing cells (hair cells). As these hair cells move, they generate an electrical current in the auditory nerve. It travels through inter-connections to the brain area that recognizes it as sound.