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auricle the external appendages on the sides of the head that are commonly referred to as the ears; also called pinna audation the process of hearing external auditory canal the skin-lined tube extending from the auricle to the eardrum labyrinth a series of fluid-filled channels within the mastoid process of the temporal bone; also called the inner ear mastoid process a projection near the base of the temporal bone that houses the middle and inner ears tympanic membrane a membrane-covered disk that receives sound waves, amplifies them, and transmits them to the first ossicle, the malleus; also called the eardrum tympanic cavity a small, air-filled cavity between the inside wall of the eardrum and the inner ear cerumen the waxy substance produced by glands lining the external auditory canal; the term is the Latin word for wax cochlea a spiral snail shell-shaped series of fluid-filled channels of the inner ear that contains the organ of Corti Eustachian tube a tube that connects the throat with the tympanic cavity of the inner ear outer ear the part of the ear that includes the auricle and the external auditory canal incus the middle of the three auditory ossicles and is shaped like a blacksmith's anvil malleus the first of the three auditory ossicles of the middle ear, and is shaped like a hammer middle ear the midsection of the ear that lies within the tympanic cavity of the temporal bone; it includes the tympanic membrane and the ossicles organ of Corti an area within the cochlea that contains the sensory receptors for audation, which is connected to sensory nerves that send impulses to the brain semicircular canals three loop-shaped, fluid-filled canals that detect changes in body position stapes the third of the three auditory ossicles and is shaped like the stirrup of a horse's saddle vestibule a chamber joining the semicircular canals with the cochlea and containing sensory receptors that respond to changes in body position for the sense of equilibrium