What is the importance of the vestibular analyzer?

The vestibular system detects movement of the head in space and in turn generates reflexes that are critical to our daily activities, such as stabilizing the visual axis (gaze) and maintaining head and body position. In addition, the vestibular system gives us our subjective sense of movement and orientation in space. The vestibular sense organs are located in the temporal bone in the immediate vicinity of the cochlea, the auditory sensory organ. Although the vestibular system was recognized as a separate entity from the auditory part of the inner ear only in the middle of the 19th century, it is phylogenetically the oldest part of the inner ear.