Otolith organs are responsible for?
A. Producing the vestibular-ocular reflexB. Detecting the position of the head in space
C. Producing rotary nystagmus
D. Detecting angular acceleration
The answer is B.
The otolith
organs provide information about the
position of the head with respect to gravity. When the head is bent away
from its normal upright position, otoliths (small calcium carbonate crystals
within the utricle and sacculeare pulled downward by gravity. The crystals bend
the stereocilia on the hair cells, causing the hair cells to depolarize.
Depolarization of the hair cells stimulates the vestibular iterse fibers.
Bending the head in different directions causes different otoliths to move.
Therefore, the particular group of vestibular nerve fibers that is stimulated
signals the direction in which the head bends.
