How our ears give us balance

Human body is gifted with many organs with equal importance. The sensory organs keep the whole body active and in maintain the equilibrium of the whole body. Different organs do multiple actions and after every action they send signals to the brain and our brain responds to them with the same speed. This all happens at such a high speed that is hard to imagine. Human ears also do multiple actions. Apart from helping us in hearing the different frequencies (human ears are subject to hearing limited frequencies from 20Hz to 20000 Hz) the ears help in maintaining the body balance.

Human ear picks sound vibrations and waves and send signals to brain after converting them to electrical signals, which can be interpreted by the brain and thus our brain responds to the same signals, and in turn the other body parts get commands to perform necessary actions. Human ear is divided into 3 sections – external ear, middle and internal ear. The external part is visible in the human body but the internal part of the ear is responsible for hearing. The internal ears also do another action of maintaining the balance of the body. The inner ear detects the position of the body relating it with the original pull of gravity and in case of any differences observed, it sends signals to the brain and the brain sends the commands to the responsible organs to regain balance.

Whenever there is a disturbance in the balance and your body deviates from the equilibrium due to the pull of the gravity, the brain gets notified of such changes and thus the balance is regained. Thus, to support the ears to maintain the balance, the visionary and other sense organs sends signals to the brain. Every action taken by the body is controlled by the brain and supported by different sense organs, and if the brain does not get signals from any of those organs, we feel dizziness or balance loss.

The inner ear has 3 semicircular canals which are filled with fluids helping the brain to locate the 3 planes, and in case of any these canals do not send regular information we feel a loss of equilibrium. This normally happens in roller-coaster rides, during diving, driving in hilly areas and other situations. In each of these situations, the fluid inside the semicircular canals starts flowing faster and results in loss of equilibrium and we feel dizziness. The loss of balance also happens in the case of strong impact on the head. In such case also the fluid is not balanced in those canals and the brain does not get regular signals to maintain the equilibrium.

The organ of balance always detects the position of the head with the help of two sacks known as utricle and saccule. These sacs are made up of hair-cells which are attracted by gravity if the position of the head is not in balance and immediately signals are sent to the brain to retain balance.