Skip to main content 1 Introduction & Overview The vestibular system at a glance — what it does, its five sensory organs, and the pathway from inner ear to brain that keeps balance, gaze, and spatial orientation stable. 2 Semicircular Canals The three orthogonal canals that sense angular acceleration — anatomy, the crista and cupula, push–pull pairing, and the VOR. 3 Otolith Organs — Utricle & Saccule The two sensors of linear acceleration and head tilt — the maculae, the otoconia-weighted otolithic membrane, the striola, and how gravity and translation are transduced. 4 The Vestibular Nerve The peripheral conduit of balance — Scarpa's ganglion, the superior and inferior divisions, the course to the brainstem, and the lesions that disrupt it: vestibular neuritis and schwannoma. 5 Vestibular Nuclei & Central Pathways The brainstem hub of balance — the four vestibular nuclei, the tracts that carry their output to the eyes, spinal cord, and cortex, and what goes wrong with central vestibular lesions. 6 The Vestibulocerebellum The cerebellum's balance region — the flocculonodular lobe — which calibrates the vestibular reflexes, adapts them when they drift, and whose damage produces a distinctive central syndrome. 7 The Vestibular Reflexes How the vestibular system turns sensing into action — the vestibulo-ocular reflex for stable gaze, the vestibulospinal reflexes for posture, and the cerebellar adaptation that keeps them calibrated. 8 Clinical Correlations How the anatomy maps onto disease — the localisation logic of vestibular medicine: peripheral versus central vertigo, the acute vestibular syndrome, BPPV, Ménière's, and the central disorders. 9 Tools & Tests The clinical and laboratory tests of vestibular function — bedside examination, caloric testing, the video head impulse test, and VEMPs — and the specific anatomy each one probes.