Vestibular System: The Many Facets of a Multimodal Sense

Elegant sensory structures in the inner ear have evolved to measure head motion. These vestibular receptors consist of highly conserved semicircular canals and otolith organs. Unlike other senses, vestibular information in the central nervous system becomes immediately multisensory and multimodal. There is no overt, readily recognizable conscious sensation from these organs, yet vestibular signals contribute to a surprising range of brain functions, from the most automatic reflexes to spatial perception and motor coordination. Critical to these diverse, multimodal functions are multiple computationally intriguing levels of processing. For example, the need for multisensory integration necessitates vestibular…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• MU
  McGill University
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: EY12814, DC04260
• CS
  Canadian Space Agency
• CI
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research