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7.1.1: Learning Objectives and Introduction

  • Page ID
    225196
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    Learning Objectives
    • Define the basic structures of the vestibular receptor system.
    • Describe the neuroanatomy of the vestibuloocular, vestibulospinal, and vestibulo-thalamo-cortical pathways.
    • Describe the vestibular commissural system.
    • Describe the different multisensory cortical areas for motion perception.

    Introduction

    Remember the dizzy feeling you got as a child after you jumped off the merry-go-round or spun around like a top? These feelings result from activation of the vestibular system, which detects our movements through space but is not a conscious sense like vision or hearing. In fact, most vestibular functions are imperceptible, but vestibular-related sensations such as motion sickness can pop up rapidly when riding on a roller coaster, having a bumpy plane ride, or a sailing a boat in rough seas. However, these sensations are really side effects and the vestibular system is actually extremely important for everyday activities, with vestibular signals being involved in much of the brain’s information processing that controls such fundamental functions as balance, posture, gaze stabilization, spatial orientation, and navigation, to name a few. In many regions of the brain, vestibular information is combined with signals from the other senses as well as with motor information to give rise to motion perception, body awareness, and behavioral control. Here, we will explore the workings of the vestibular system and consider some of the integrated computations the brain performs using vestibular signals to guide our common behavior.

    no throwing up in the pool sign .png

    Although you may be most aware of the vestibular system in situations where you experience motion sickness, at other times its working in the background to provide you with essential functions like balance and stable vision. [Image: Leo Reynolds, https://goo.gl/N8D94w, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, https://goo.gl/Toc0ZF]


    The Vestibular System by Dora Angelaki and J. David Dickman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available in our Licensing Agreement.


    This page titled 7.1.1: Learning Objectives and Introduction is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Michael Miguel.