[The vestibular system: from structure to function].

Abstract

The two vestibular receptors, right and left, hidden in the petrous part of the temporal bone with the cochlear receptors, receive information from angular and linear movements of the head and transform them into a nerve message sent to the nuclei of the brainstem, which are connected directly on the one hand to the oculomotor nuclei, at the origin of the oculovestibular reflex (induction of nystagmus), and on the other hand, to the spinal motor neurons, at the origin of the vestibulospinal reflex. These reflexes are associated with responses to visual and somaesthetic information for maintenance or return to the standing position, which characterises the function of equilibrium. Vertigo and disorders of balance reflect a conflict of information between these two labyrinths, or between the vestibular apparatus and the messages issued by other captors, and sometimes also dysfunction of central nervous system treatment of information or a lesion of the effector motor systems.