The Vestibular System Is a Bilateral Receptor System Located in the Inner Ear
The inner ear, or labyrinth, is made up of two parts: the bony labyrinth and the membranous labyrinth. The bony labyrinth is a system of caverns and tunnels through the petrous temporal bone of the skull.
The bony labyrinth houses the receptor organs of the vestibular system as well as the receptor organ for hearing, the cochlea (Figure 11-I) (see Chapter 17). These receptor organs are part of the membranous labyrinth, which consists of thin membranes of epithelium and lies within the bony labyrinth. This epithelial membrane is specialized at some locations to become the sensory receptor cells that form the vestibular and auditory receptor organs. The membranous labyrinth is filled with a fluid called endolymph and is separated from the bony labyrinth by a fluid called perilymph. The vestibular portion of the membranous labyrinth consists of two major sets of structures: (I) three semicircular ducts, located at approximately right angles to each other, and (2) a pair of saclike structures called the utricle and saccule, sometimes called the otolith organs. As discussed later, each major set of structures is respectively involved in transducing a different major class of vestibular stimulus.
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