Sound waves travel into the ear canal until they reach the eardrum. The eardrum passes the vibrations through the middle ear bones or ossicles into the inner ear. The inner ear is shaped like a snail and is also called the cochlea. Inside the cochlea, there are thousands of tiny hair cells.
The cochlea has three fluid-filled sections. The perilymph fluid in the canals differs from the endolymph fluid in the cochlear duct. The organ of Corti is the sensor of pressure variations.