S3C4 (2.0) Flashcards
What is the role of the vestibular system?
Balance and spatial orientation
What does the vestibular system consist of?
Otolith organs - uttricle and saccule
Semicircular canal
What is the role of the otolith organs?
Detect changes in gravity (e.g., head position) and generate electric impulses transmitted by the vestibular nerve
What are maculae?
Thickenings in the wall of the utricle and saccule, which consist of supporting cells, vestibular hair cells, an otolithic membrane, and otoliths (particles of calcium carbonate)
What does the utricle sense?
Senses motions in the horizontal plane
What does the saccule sense?
Sense motions in the sagittal plane (vertical)
What does the semicircular sense?
Sense rotary movements at their ampullas
Where do the hair cells of the vestibular organ synapse?
Each hair cell makes an excitatory synapse with the end of a sensatory axon from the vestibular nerve, branch of the vestibulocochlear nerve (CN VIII)
Where are the cell bodies of the vestibular nerve axons?
Scarpas ganglion
What are the membranous sacs withing the bone (vestibular system) filled with?
Endolymph - collectively called the membranous labyrinth
What is the chemical composition of endolymph?
High in K+ and low in Na+.
What is between the bony walls (the osseous labyrinth) and the membranous labyrinth?
Perilymph
What is the chemical composition of perilymph?
Low in K+ and high in Na
What is the role of the tight junctions that seal the apical surfaces of the vestibular hair cells?
Ensuring that endolymph selectively bathes the hair cell bundle while remaining separate from the perilymph surrounding the basal portion of the hair cell
What does movements of the stereocilia towards the kinocilium cause?
The vestibular organs opens mechanically gated transduction channels located at the tips of the stereocilia.
This causes depolarisation of the hair cell, causing neurotransmitter release onto (and excitation of) the vestibular nerve fibres.
What does the biphasic nature of the receptor potential mean?
Some transduction channels are open in the absence of stimulation, with the result that hair cells tonically release neurotransmitter, thereby generating considerable spontaneous activity in vestibular nerve fibres
What is the role of the stroila?
Divide the hair cells into two populations with opposing polarities in the utricle and saccule
What is the otolithic membrane?
A fibrous structure in which crystals of calcium carbonate called otoliths are embedded
What happens when the head tilts?
Gravity causes the membrane to shift relative to the sensory epithelium.
The shearing motion between the otolithic membrane and macula displaces the hair bundles
This displacement of the hair bundles generates a receptor potential in the hair cells.
Where are the hair bundles in the otolith organs?
Embedded in the lower, gelatinous surface of the membrane.
What signalling pattern from the otoliths would indicate an absolute head position?
Sustained
What signalling pattern from the otoliths would indicate an linear acceleration of the head?
Transient
What happens when the head turns in the plane of one of the semicircular canals?
The inertia of the endolymph produces a force across the cupula, distending it away from the direction of head movement and causing a displacement of the hair bundles within the crista.
What are the consonant features?
Manner
Voicing
Place