Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The semicircular canals are three semicircular interconnected tubes located in the innermost part of each ear, the inner ear. The three canals are the lateral, anterior and posterior semicircular canals. They are the part of the bony labyrinth, a periosteum-lined cavity on the petrous part of the temporal bone filled with perilymph.
Since the world is three-dimensional, the vestibular system contains three semicircular canals in each labyrinth. They are approximately orthogonal (at right angles) to each other, and are the horizontal (or lateral), the anterior semicircular canal (or superior), and the posterior (or inferior) semicircular canal.
Each semicircular canal (SSC) is a thin tube that doubles in thickness briefly at a point called osseous ampullae. At their center-base, each contains an ampullary cupula . The cupula is a gelatin bulb connected to the stereocilia of hair cells, affected by the relative movement of the endolymph it is bathed in. [ citation needed ]
The cochlea propagates these mechanical signals as waves in the fluid and membranes and then converts them to nerve impulses which are transmitted to the brain. [4] The vestibular system is the region of the inner ear where the semicircular canals converge, close to the cochlea.
The vestibular nerve is one of the two branches of the vestibulocochlear nerve (the cochlear nerve being the other). In humans the vestibular nerve transmits sensory information from vestibular hair cells located in the two otolith organs (the utricle and the saccule) and the three semicircular canals via the vestibular ganglion of Scarpa.
Hearing: Cochlear duct: fluid waves in the endolymph of the cochlear duct stimulate the receptor cells, which in turn translate their movement into nerve impulses that the brain perceives as sound. Balance: Semicircular canals : angular acceleration of the endolymph in the semicircular canals stimulate the vestibular receptors of the endolymph.
The cupula is located within the ampullae of each of the three semicircular canals. Part of the crista ampullaris, the cupula has embedded within it hair cells that have several stereocilia associated with each kinocilium. The cupula itself is the gelatinous component of the crista ampullaris that extends from the crista to the roof of the ...
Head position is sensed by the utricle and saccule, whereas head movement is sensed by the semicircular canals. The neural signals generated in the vestibular ganglion are transmitted through the vestibulocochlear nerve to the brain stem and cerebellum. [18] The semicircular canals are three ring-like extensions of the vestibule.