title: Anatomy, physiology, and physics of the peripheral vestibular system.
abstract: Many medical doctors consider vertigo and dizziness as the major, almost obligatory complaints in patients with vestibular disorders. In this chapter, we will explain that vestibular disorders result in much more diverse and complex complaints. Many of these other complaints are unfortunately often misinterpreted and incorrectly classified as psychogenic. When we really understand the function of the vestibular system, it becomes quite obvious why patients with vestibular disorders complain about a loss of visual acuity, imbalance, fear of falling, cognitive and attentional problems, fatigue that persists even when the vertigo attacks and dizziness decreases or even disappears. Another interesting new aspect in this chapter is that we explain why the function of the otolith system is so important, and that it is a mistake to focus on the function of the semicircular canals only, especially when we want to understand why some patients seem to suffer more than others from the loss of canal function as objectified by reduced caloric responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands and Faculty of Physics, National Research State University Tomsk, Tomsk, Russian Federation. Electronic address: kingmaherman@gmail.com.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kingma
authors.affiliation: Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands and Faculty of Physics, National Research State University Tomsk, Tomsk, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van de Berg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: balance and posture; dynamic visual acuity; otolith or statolith system; semicircular canals; vertigo