| auditory ossicles | The small bones of the middle ear; they are articulated to form a chain for the transmission of sound from the tympanic membrane to the oval window. Synonym: ossicula auditus, ear bones, ossicular chain. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| auditory pathway | Neural paths and connections within the central nervous system, beginning at the organ of Corti's hair cells, continuing along the eighth nerve, and terminating at the auditory cortex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory perception | The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organised and interpreted by the organism; includes speech discrimination. (12 Dec 1998) |
| auditory perceptual disorders | Disorders of auditory perception manifesting as difficulties with auditory memory, speech perception and sound localization. Lesions are usually in the temporal lobe. (12 Dec 1998) |
| auditory pits | Paired depressions, one on either side of the head of the embryo, marking the location of the future auditory vesicles. Synonym: otic pits. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory placodes | Paired ectodermal placode's that sink below the general level of the superficial ectoderm to form the auditory vesicles. Synonym: otic placodes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory process | The roughened edge of the tympanic plate giving attachment to the cartilaginous portion of the external acoustic meatus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory receptor cells | Columnar cell's in the epithelium of the organ of Corti, having hairs (stereocilia) on their apical ends. See: Corti's cells. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory reflex | Any reflex occurring in response to a sound, e.g., cochleopalpebral reflex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory striae | Slender fascicles of fibres extending transversally below the ependymal floor of the ventricle from the median sulcus to enter the inferior cerebellar peduncle. They arise from the arcuate nuclei on the ventral surface of the medullary pyramid. Synonym: striae medullares ventriculi quarti, acoustic striae, auditory striae, Bergmann's cords, medullary teniae, teniae acusticae. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory strings | Bundles of parallel filaments in the zona pectinata of the lamina basilaris of the cochlea; the length of the string's varies from 64 um in the basal coil to 480 um in the apex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory teeth | Tooth-shaped formations or ridges occurring on the vestibular lip of the limbus lamina spiralis of the cochlear duct. Synonym: dentes acustici, Corti's auditory teeth, Huschke's auditory teeth. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory threshold | The audibility limit of discriminating sound intensity and pitch. (12 Dec 1998) |
| auditory tract | A bundle of ascending fibres that originate from the cochlear and auditory relay nuclei of the rhombencephalon, enter the trapezoid body, a transverse fibre stratum in which about half their number decussate, and from here turn rostrally along the lateral side of the spinothalamic tract; in the midbrain, it arches dorsally and enters the inferior colliculus in which all of its fibres terminate; the auditory pathway is transsynaptically extended from here by the brachium of the inferior colliculus to the medial geniculate body of the thalamus, from which in turn the auditory radiation leads to the auditory cortex; intercalated in the trapezoid body and along the ascending trajectory of the lemniscus are several cell groups in which part of the fibres synapse. Synonym: lemniscus lateralis, acoustic lemniscus, auditory lemniscus, auditory tract, lateral fillet. (05 Mar 2000) |
| auditory tube | A tube leading from the tympanic cavity to the nasopharynx; it consists of an osseous (posterolateral) portion at the tympanic end, and a fibrocartilaginous (anteromedial) portion at the pharyngeal end; where the two portions join, in the region of the sphenopetrosal fissure, is the narrowest portion of the tube (isthmus); the auditory tube enables equalization of pressure within the tympanic cavity with ambient air pressure, referred to commonly as "popping of the ears". Synonym: tuba auditiva, tuba auditoria, eustachian tube, guttural duct, otopharyngeal tube, otosalpinx, pharyngotympanic tube, salpinx, tuba acustica, tuba eustachiana, tuba eustachii. (05 Mar 2000) |