Tympanic membrane retraction adherent to other structures within the middle ear. Some retractions continue to progress and grow more deeply into the ear. This can result in erosion of bone. As the middle ear is only a narrow space, the eardrum only has to retract a short distance before it touches boney structures within the middle ear such as the ossicles. It may become adherent to these bones and in some cases, this contact leads to erosion of the bone. As well as ossicular erosion, the bone of the ear canal (e.g. the scutum) and even bone over the cochlea (the promontory) can
Basilar membrane membrane is also the "base" for the sensory cells of hearing, the hair cells that are equipped with "Stereocilia". There are approximately 15,000 hair cells in each human ear (see figure). This function as base of the sensory cells gave the "basilar" membrane its name, and it is again present in all land vertebrates. Due to its location, the basilar membrane places the hair cells in a position where they are adjacent to both the endolymph and the perilymph, which is a precondition of hair cell function. A third, evolutionarily younger, function of the basilar membrane is strongly developed in