Four hand-built simulators of vestibular physiology. Each is fully interactive on screen and renders a clean static state for print and for reduced-motion users.
Hair-cell transduction
Deflect the stereocilia toward or away from the kinocilium and watch the afferent firing rate respond.
Resting. Deflection towards the kinocilium opens mechanically-gated channels; K⁺ influx depolarizes the cell and increases afferent firing. Deflection away closes them.
Coplanar canal push-pull
Turn the head and see the paired horizontal canals signal in opposite directions around their resting rate.
Coplanar canals signal as a push-pull pair. A head turn excites one ampulla and inhibits its contralateral partner; the brainstem reads the difference. At rest both fire near 90 spikes/s.
The three-neuron VOR arc
Follow a signal from canal to vestibular nucleus to ocular motor nucleus, and watch the eye rotate opposite to the head.
A three-neuron arc — canal, vestibular nucleus, ocular motor nucleus — drives the eye opposite to the head, with a latency of only 10–12 ms. The pulse shows signal flow along the arc.
Velocity storage
Compare the rapid passive decay of the cupula with the prolonged central response when velocity storage is engaged.
After a sustained head rotation the cupula returns to rest within 5–10 s. Velocity storage in the vestibular nuclei and nodulus prolongs the central response, so per-rotational nystagmus can persist for 18–30 s.