The ear consists of three parts: the outer ear is made up of the pinna, or outer part of the ear, and the external auditory canal the middle ear is made up of the eardrum and the ossicular chain, the malleus, incus and the stapes. This chain is linked to one side of the eardrum membrane by one end of the malleus and to the other side, in the inner ear, by the stapes the inner ear is made up of the balance organs, the vestibule, and the cochlea for hearing. This looks like a snail. It is filled with a liquid and is covered by specialised hair cells, which are connected to the nervous fibres at the origin of the auditory nerve. This complete structure transmits the sound waves and turns them into nerve impulses, which are then sent to the brain through the auditory nerve for interpretation. The pinna picks up sound waves from the surrounding area (speech, music, noise) and guides them through the external auditory canal, which then transmits them to the middle ear.  The sound waves then come into contact with the membrane of the eardrum and make it vibrate. These movements are transmitted through the ossicles, and the vibrations of the stapes agitate the liquid in the cochlea at the point where it is joined.  The hair cells in the cochlea move according to the movements in the liquid and as a result create electric pulses in the corresponding nerve fibres. The information in the form of pulses is then transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve to be interpreted as sound. In summary, the function of the cochlea is to convert sound waves into electric pulses, which are then transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve.