In recent years, it has been increasingly acknowledged that the saccule not only responds best to low frequency sound, but may in fact at least contribute to the hearing of this frequency band.2Evidence accumulated over the last few decades supports the case that the saccule has conserved an acoustic sensitivity throughout vertebrate phylogeny; indeed, electrophysiological assessment of vestibular function using vestibular evoked myogenic potentials takes advantage of this phenomenon.3It is possible that saccular stimulation contributes to the affective quality of loud sounds,4and it has been shown that the vestibular system in mice can mediate the detection of low frequency sounds.5 We believe that Kanegaonkar and colleagues' article makes a significant contribution not only to the theory that sound may play a role in orientation, but also to the argument that the saccule, which is itself sensitive to sound, may mediate this phenomenon.
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