BIOL373 Lecture Notes - Retina Horizontal Cell, Opsin, Oval Window

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL373
• Professor: Heidi Engelhardt

Document Summary

Note: the vestibular complex of the inner ear is the primary sensor for equilibrium! Transduce vibration of the tympanic membrane to a vibration of the oval window eventually ends up moving liquid around. Inner ear: vestibular apparatus + semicircular canals and the cochlea. The vestibular apparatus + semicircular canals is the sensory transducer for our sense of equilibrium! The oval window and round window separate the fluid-filled cochlea from the air-filled middle ear. The vestibular duct and tympanic duct are actually continuous (it is 1 single fluid-filled space that surrounds the blue zone: cochlear duct) Vibration sends a travelling wave of motion through the fluid and it pushes on the cochlear duct and the bottom part of the cochlear duct. Round window allows pressure of vibration to dissipate (not very interesting ) The cochlear duct (in blue) is filled with a special fluid called endolymph. Tympanic and vestibular ducts are filled with perilymph.