Bethany Mendoza's List: Equilibrium-Anatomy

• Balance and equilibrium help us stay upright when standing and know where we are in relation to gravity.
• Balance is controlled through signals to the brain from your eyes, the inner ear, and the sensory systems of the body (such as the skin, muscles, and joints). This balance system is also known as the vestibular system.

  • Vestibular system
• In the inner ear, the balance system consists of three semicircular canals that contain fluid and “sensors” that detect rotational movement of the head. Each of the semicircular canals lies at a different angle and is situated at a right angle to each other. The semicircular canals deal with different movement: up-and-down, side-to-side, and tilting from one side to the other. All contain sensory hair cells that are activated by movement of inner ear fluid (endolymph). As the head moves, hair cells in the semicircular canals send nerve impulses to the brain by way of the acoustic nerve. The nerve impulses are processed in the brain to help us know where we are in space or if we are moving.

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• only the inner ear is  responsible for balance.

  • inner ear responsible for balance
• balance.
• The inner
• , 2) the semicircular canals have function associated with balance, and  3) the  vestibule which connects the two and contains two more balance and equilibrium  related structures, the saccule and utricle.
• eighth  cranial nerve (cranial nerve VIII) which is composed of the vestibular nerve
• Information from the vestibular system of the inner ear (semicircular canals,  the saccule and the utricle) is sent to the brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal  cord.

  • how balance works
• three semicircular canals in the inner ear

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• The other divisions of the inner ear—the vestibule and the semicircular canals—are involved in the sense of equilibrium.
• Motions of the head cause the otoliths to pull on the hair cells, stimulating another auditory nerve branch, the vestibular nerve, which signals the position of the head with respect to the rest of the body.