The Physics and Physiology of Balance

The vestibular system, identified as the sensory organ of balance, is located in the inner ear of all vertebrates and plays an important role in the organism's body movements or locomotion. This chapter focuses on a part of the vestibular system, the semicircular canal system. It first discusses the functional morphology of the semicircular canal system and highlights two important properties of semicircular canal function: arc size and planar orientation. It then discusses the biophysical and physiological aspects of the vestibular system in land and in water.