| external aperture of cochlear canaliculus | The external opening of the cochlear aqueduct on the temporal bone medial to the jugular fossa. Synonym: apertura externa canaliculi cochleae. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| external wall of cochlear duct | The wall that faces the outer side of the cochlea. Synonym: paries externus ductus cochlearis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| little fossa of the cochlear window | A depression on the medial wall of the middle ear which has the fenestra cochleae (round window) in its lower portion. Synonym: fossula rotunda, little fossa of the cochlear window. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic | Pertaining to the sense of hearing, the organs of hearing, or the science of sounds; auditory. Acoustic duct, the auditory duct, or external passage of the ear. Acoustic telegraph, a telegraph making audible signals; a telephone. Acoustic vessels, brazen tubes or vessels, shaped like a bell, used in ancient theaters to propel the voices of the actors, so as to render them audible to a great distance. Origin: F. Acoustique, Gr. Relating to hearing, fr. To hear. A medicine or agent to assist hearing. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| acoustic agraphia | The inability to write from dictation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic aphasia | An impairment in comprehension of the auditory forms of language and communication, including the ability to write from dictation in the presence of normal hearing. Spontaneous speech, reading, and writing are not affected. Synonym: acoustic aphasia, word deafness. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic cell | A hair cell of the organ of Corti. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic crest | An elevation on the inner surface of the ampulla of each saemicircular duct; filaments of the vestibular nerve pass through the crista to reach hair cells on its surface; the hair cells are capped by the cupula, a gelatinous protein-polysaccharide mass. Synonym: crista ampullaris, acoustic crest, transverse septum. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic enhancement | A manifestation of increased acoustic signal amplitude returning from regions beyond an object which causes little or no attenuation of the sound beam. Compare: acoustic shadow. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic impedance | The resistance that a material offers to the passage of a sound wave (colloquial); a property of a medium computed as the product of density and sound propagation speed (characteristic acoustic impedance). Discontinuities in acoustic impedance are responsible for the echoes on which ultrasound imaging is based. Unit: the rayl. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic impedance tests | Objective tests of middle ear function based on the difficulty (impedance) or ease (admittance) of sound flow through the middle ear. These include static impedance and dynamic impedance (i.e., tympanometry and impedance tests in conjunction with intra-aural muscle reflex elicitation). This term is used also for various components of impedance and admittance (e.g., compliance, conductance, reactance, resistance, susceptance). (12 Dec 1998) |
| acoustic lemniscus | 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) |
| acoustic lens | In ultrasonography, a lens used to focus or diverge a sound beam; may be simulated by electronic manipulation of signals. (05 Mar 2000) |
| acoustic maculae | Thickened areas of the saccule and utricle where the termination of the vestibular nerve occurs. (12 Dec 1998) |
| acoustic nerve | <anatomy, nerve> The 8th cranial nerve. The acoustic (or vestibulocochlear) nerve has a cochlear part which is concerned with hearing and a vestibular part which mediates the sense of balance and head position. The fibres of the cochlear nerve originate from neurons of the spiral ganglion and project to the cochlear nuclei. The fibres of the vestibular nerve arise from neurons of scarpa's ganglion and project to the vestibular nuclei. (12 Dec 1998) |