| 释义 |
otolith Anat. and Physiol.|ˈəʊtəlɪθ|
[mod. f. oto- + Gr. λίθος stone.]
An ear-stone; one of the calcareous bodies, often in the shape of rhombic crystals, found in the inner ear of vertebrates and some invertebrates; in fishes often of great size, in the higher vertebrates small particles.
1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 554/1 An acoustic vestibule, containing..a calcareous body or otolithe. 1883H. Gray Anat. (ed. 10) 618 The otoliths are two small rounded bodies, consisting of a mass of minute crystalline grains of carbonate of lime, held together in a mesh of delicate fibrous tissue, and contained in the wall of the utricle and saccule, opposite the distribution of the nerves. 1900Schäfer Physiol. II. 1205 Lee is of opinion that the otoliths and maculæ form the organ for statical equilibrium.
¶b. By confusion, applied to the otic bones or ossicles of the inner ear in some animals.
Hence otoˈlithic, otoˈlitic adjs., of the nature of or pertaining to an otolith; containing otoliths.
1855T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 2) 110 (Acalephæ) The otolitic vesicle, which, from analogy..is considered as an organ of hearing. 1875Huxley in Encycl. Brit. I. 132/1 A sensory organ, having the characters of an otolithic sac, is seated upon the ganglion. 1900Schäfer Physiol. II. 1167 The most primitive form of internal ear is undoubtedly a sac containing fluid in which an otolithic mass is immersed, and having on the wall hair-like processes related to the terminations of a nerve.
Add:c. Comb.otolith organ, each of the acoustic maculae of the utricle and saccule of the inner ear, which sense the direction of motion of the head and its attitude with respect to the surrounding gravitational field.
1919S. S. Maxwell in Jrnl. Gen. Physiol. II. 123 It was suggested that the dynamic function is performed by the sensory structures of the semicircular canals, the static by the otolith organs of the vestibule. 1934Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XXV. 45 Changes in the direction or value of g set up nerve impulses in the otolith organs. 1961‘F. O'Brien’ Hard Life vi. 47 The nerves which supply the labyrinth end with a number of cells attired in hair-like projections which, when grouped, form the two otolith organs in the saccule and utricle and the three cristae of the semi-circular canals. 1984J. F. Lamb et al. Essent. Physiol. (ed. 2) x. 320 Linear movement in space is detected by the otolith organs of the saccule and utricle.
otoˈlithic a.: also otolithic membrane, the flattened gelatinous mass, containing otoliths, which forms that layer of the otolith organ situated next to the lumen of the inner ear;also otoˈlitic a. = otolithic a.
1932J. S. Fraser in A. L. Turner Dis. Nose, Throat & Ear (ed. 3) xxxi. 277 The stimulation of the macula is the pressure or pull of the otolithic membrane on the hair cells. 1983Sci. Amer. Jan. 46/1 After the saccule is removed from the frog and the otolithic membrane is stripped away the epithelial layer that includes the hair cells is revealed. |