Dizziness is caused by a continuing rotation of the fluids in the semi-circular canals of the vestibular system that transmit rotation information to the brain. After prolonged rotation of the body, the circular canal fluids are engaged in a rotating motion. This fluid motion continues even when the body has stopped moving. The persistent fluid rotation is detected by the hair cells lining the canals that in turn send this aberrant information to the brain that interprets it as continuous motion of the body. A picture from the wiki page on the vestibular system:
All jawed vertebrates, including snakes, have this basic system of a horizontal, posterior and anterior canal filled with fluid (wiki on the vestibular system). Based on this common anatomy, hence, it is reasonable to assume snakes do get dizzy. However, as @tel rightfully indicates, dizziness is a subjective perceptual phenomenon and the assumption of snakes getting dizzy needs experimental verification. Ethically, however, this would (and should) never get through a review board as it is a curiosity-based question only.
Dizziness is caused by a continuing rotation of the fluids in the semi-circular canals of the vestibular system that transmit rotation information to the brain. After prolonged rotation of the body, the circular canal fluids are engaged in a rotating motion. This fluid motion continues even when the body has stopped moving. The persistent fluid rotation is detected by the hair cells lining the canals that in turn send this aberrant information to the brain that interprets it as continuous motion of the body. A picture from the wiki page on the vestibular system:
All jawed vertebrates, including snakes, have this basic system of a horizontal, posterior and anterior canal filled with fluid (wiki on the vestibular system). Based on this common anatomy, hence, it is reasonable to assume snakes do get dizzy. However, as @tel rightfully indicates, dizziness is a subjective perceptual phenomenon and the assumption of snakes getting dizzy needs experimental verification. Ethically, however, this would (and should) never get through a review board as it is a curiosity-based question only.
@ChrisStronks You're right, you should submit an application to your Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for permission to swing snakes around.More
The vestibular system detects motion in general and sends feedback to many systems, including the oculomotor system that keeps the eyes fixed onto a potential prey. No just-out-of-curiosity-experiments on animals, please :)More
Perhaps you could restrain a snake in a long tube, spin it along the long axis, and then measure its ability to strike at a target? I wonder what snakes use their vestibular system for, they are in contact with solid surfaces nearly all the time...More
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Probably don't do any experiments that involve shoving reptiles in a sack and swinging them around your head, as someone will surely call the ASPCA on you.
The type of dizziness that is associated with spinning around is called "vertigo". From wikipedia:
Repetitive spinning, as in familiar childhood games, can induce short-lived vertigo by disrupting the inertia of the fluid in the vestibular system
So then from a physiological perspective the question is, do snakes have fluid in their ears like people do? And a quick review of snake physiology seems to suggest that they do.
Thus, I'm going to put forward the tentative hypothesis that yes, snakes can get dizzy, but it's still probably very different from you think of as dizziness.
Probably don't do any experiments that involve shoving reptiles in a sack and swinging them around your head, as someone will surely call the ASPCA on you.
The type of dizziness that is associated with spinning around is called "vertigo". From wikipedia:
Repetitive spinning, as in familiar childhood games, can induce short-lived vertigo by disrupting the inertia of the fluid in the vestibular system
So then from a physiological perspective the question is, do snakes have fluid in their ears like people do? And a quick review of snake physiology seems to suggest that they do.
Thus, I'm going to put forward the tentative hypothesis that yes, snakes can get dizzy, but it's still probably very different from you think of as dizziness.
Dizziness is caused by a continuing rotation of the fluids in the semi-circular canals of the vestibular system that transmit rotation information to the brain. After prolonged rotation of the body, the circular canal fluids are engaged in a rotating motion. This fluid motion continues even when the body has stopped moving. The persistent fluid rotation is detected by the hair cells lining the canals that in turn send this aberrant information to the brain that interprets it as continuous motion of the body. A picture from the wiki page on the vestibular system:
All jawed vertebrates, including snakes, have this basic system of a horizontal, posterior and anterior canal filled with fluid (wiki on the vestibular system). Based on this common anatomy, hence, it is reasonable to assume snakes do get dizzy. However, as @tel rightfully indicates, dizziness is a subjective perceptual phenomenon and the assumption of snakes getting dizzy needs experimental verification. Ethically, however, this would (and should) never get through a review board as it is a curiosity-based question only.
Dizziness is caused by a continuing rotation of the fluids in the semi-circular canals of the vestibular system that transmit rotation information to the brain. After prolonged rotation of the body, the circular canal fluids are engaged in a rotating motion. This fluid motion continues even when the body has stopped moving. The persistent fluid rotation is detected by the hair cells lining the canals that in turn send this aberrant information to the brain that interprets it as continuous motion of the body. A picture from the wiki page on the vestibular system:
All jawed vertebrates, including snakes, have this basic system of a horizontal, posterior and anterior canal filled with fluid (wiki on the vestibular system). Based on this common anatomy, hence, it is reasonable to assume snakes do get dizzy. However, as @tel rightfully indicates, dizziness is a subjective perceptual phenomenon and the assumption of snakes getting dizzy needs experimental verification. Ethically, however, this would (and should) never get through a review board as it is a curiosity-based question only.
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Probably don't do any experiments that involve shoving reptiles in a sack and swinging them around your head, as someone will surely call the ASPCA on you.
The type of dizziness that is associated with spinning around is called "vertigo". From wikipedia:
So then from a physiological perspective the question is, do snakes have fluid in their ears like people do? And a quick review of snake physiology seems to suggest that they do.
Thus, I'm going to put forward the tentative hypothesis that yes, snakes can get dizzy, but it's still probably very different from you think of as dizziness.
Probably don't do any experiments that involve shoving reptiles in a sack and swinging them around your head, as someone will surely call the ASPCA on you.
The type of dizziness that is associated with spinning around is called "vertigo". From wikipedia:
So then from a physiological perspective the question is, do snakes have fluid in their ears like people do? And a quick review of snake physiology seems to suggest that they do.
Thus, I'm going to put forward the tentative hypothesis that yes, snakes can get dizzy, but it's still probably very different from you think of as dizziness.
More
VOTE