How ears help us to maintain the balance.

 

Yes, you heard right. Ears help to balance our body. The systems in the middle ear called the vestibular systems help us to stand up.

Have you ever considered how we stand on this earth when we are being acted upon by various forces, including the force of gravity that attracts every object? But still we stand upright on this earth. how it is possible ?

How ears help us to Balance?

Human ear is divided into three parts:

Outer ear

Middle ear

Inner ear

Middle ear contains some special systems which are termed as the vestibular systems. Which sends signals to the brain and help us to stand straight. These systems can sense the movement of our head and also they feel the gravity and sends signals to brain.

What are Vestibular systems?

This is a sensory system that feels the sense of balance and movement of body and motion of head.

How vestibular systems work?

These systems are present in the inner ear next to auditory cochlea. They detect motion of head like head turns motion of head relative to gravity and convert these motions into signals that can be sent to the brain.

Other systems that help in maintaining the balance:

Alongwith these vestibular systems there are two more systems which helps in maintaining the balance.

➡️Eyes/ visual system

➡️Skin/ Sensory system.

Eyes/Visual system:

Receptors are present in the retina of the eyes, when they struck by light, the receptors feel the visual feedback and send it to the brain. It tells how the person is oriented relative to the other present objects. This helps us to understand when we are upright or lying sidways.

Skin/Sensory system:

These muscles, joints and the skin are very sensitive to movement, stretch and even pressure. With the movement of the body the receptors respond and send impulses to the brain. For example when our eyes are even closed we can tell if our legs are straight or not, our elbow is straight or bent and in which direction our head moves.

Loss of maintaining balance:

Improved working of any of those mentioned systems affects the balance. The balance is majorly affected by the improver working of brain.

Damage in any part of brain can affect the signal and the response according to the signals. which cause the loss of balance.

The question arises as to whether people with hearing loss cannot maintain the balance of their body compared to other people.

Answer: Absolutely the ears play the most important role in the balance of our body. If a person suffers from an ear disease which has damaged the middle part of his ear, then such a person cannot stand for long. The chances of falling and slipping are higher than the average person.

Note: It is not necessary that people who are deaf from childhood cannot balance their body, it happens in very few people with 30% deafness out of 100. However, the body's balance is related to the systems in the middle ear, which can lead to loss of balance.