The “Hearing” assignment calls for an in-depth exploration of the processes occurring in the auditory nerve as well as the role that senses play in observing the external environment. Without hearing, the world around a person may change in terms of perception and sense adaptation. As hearing refers to the ability of a human being to perceive sounds by detecting vibrations and changes in pressure, limiting the ability for a short period of time will enhance the role of other abilities as well as show what it means to lose one’s hearing and rely on other vehicles of perception.
The process of hearing occurs when the sound enters the outer ear and moves through the ear canal to the middle ear, where the bones amplify the vibrations of sounds, and once the vibrations cause the cochlea fluid to ripple, a wave that travels through the ear develops along the basilar membrane (Allen & Harper, 2016). Then, the auditory nerve transports the electrical signal to the brain, which transforms the signal into a sound that can be recognized and understood.
During the assignment, the hearing was reduced through wearing noise-canceling headphones, which meant that everyday activities, such as watching TV and talking to a relative, were limited. The senses of touch, sight, and smell were augmented when the hearing was eliminated. For example, instead of asking my mother about what was for dinner, I relied on the sense of smell to distinguish any familiar smells associated with dishes.
When interacting with another person and their words could not be heard, more attention was paid to gestures and facial expressions, including the way in which the person talked. This information is usually ignored when hearing is involved as more attention is paid to sound.
Both sensory adaptation and habituation refer to neurochemical changes occurring in the nervous system. Overall, habituation is somewhat concerned with the brain actively filtering out irrelevant stimuli and information in order to focus on what matters. Sensory adaptation, on the other hand, is relatively passive and occurs as a response to sensory neurons’ excitation. Thus, while sensory adaptation is associative learning, habituation works in the opposite way.
For example, during the activity, sensory adaptation occurred when the brain no longer paid attention to the loss of hearing, which meant that some sounds were imagined. When pouring water into a glass, the sound of the water was imagined as if it could be heard, which led to the increased sensory adaptation. When speaking to another person, their voice was imagined because it was heard previously and could be loosely replicated in the brain.
If one of the senses is permanently lost, the perception of the world changes. In deafness, there could be a range of new deficits that have not been present prior to the loss or hearing (Houde, Landry, Page, Maheu, & Champoux, 2016).
Spacial and temporal sensitivity may increase along with the reaction time. While no changes in such body perceptions as object identification occur, it is expected that a person with lost hearing would have a lower capacity of reacting to the external environment, especially in terms of emergency situations. To maintain similar levels of reactiveness, a person would have to be more attentive in the visual perception to distinguish between the reactions of other people.
References
Allen, & Harper. (2016). Laboratory manual for anatomy and physiology (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Houde, M. S., Landry, S. P., Pagé, S., Maheu, M., & Champoux, F. (2016). Body perception and action following deafness. Neural Plasticity, 2016, 5260671.