Physiology of the Ear
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced graduate course on the physiology and physics of hearing, built around reading and discussion of original research literature rather than a textbook. Topics cover the acoustics, mechanics, and hydrodynamics of sound transmission through the outer and middle ear, the biophysical basis for cochlear amplification, hair-cell transduction and synaptic transmission, efferent feedback control, and how the inner ear encodes simple and complex sounds. The course also examines the physiological bases of hearing disorders, connecting basic mechanisms to clinical dysfunction. Materials include the reading list and discussion topics drawn from primary literature in auditory neuroscience and biophysics. There is no video lecture series; the course is structured as a seminar for students who already have a background in neuroscience, physics, or biomedical engineering. Free to audit through MIT OpenCourseWare, with no certificate offered.