Discovery: Spine Signals Ears to Maintain Balance | The Institute for Creation Research

Discovery: Spine Signals Ears to Maintain Balance

Bodies bounce while jogging or performing any number of other vigorous activities, usually without getting dizzy. However, bodies get dizzy when they are "bounced" from the outside, like while on a boat or airplane. What's the difference? Researchers pinpointed amazing new details behind the mechanism that maintains balance during voluntary motion, but their notion of its origins clearly misses the mark.

The vestibular organ (VO) resides inside the semicircular canals of the inner ear and senses head motions in all directions and all six rotations. It must have a process to dampen its sensitivity when the body itself causes motion. Without this dampening function, intentional body movements would disrupt balance—imagine getting motion sick every time you go for a jog. How does your VO protect against self-inflicted motion sickness? The answer involves a mechanism with precision parts and precise timing that has every characteristic of fine-tuned, intentional design.

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany experimented on tadpoles, which use the same basic VOs as humans. The team found that when tadpoles initiated swimming motions, their tiny spinal cords sent out two copies of the swim signal—one goes to the body's swimming muscles, and another goes to the VO. They published their results in Nature Communications.1

This second signal notifies the VO that voluntary motion is about to happen, instantly calibrating the super-sensitive, miniaturized, motion-detecting equipment. In the words of a Ludwig-Maximilians University press release, "By dampening the intrinsic sensitivity of the hair cells, the input from the spinal cord effectively adapts the VO's dynamic range."2

As is often the case with high-tech design, the researchers found that timing is key. Precise nerve signal arrival times make this system work just right. The spinal cord sends two copies of the same signal: One signal arrives at the ears just before the same signal reaches the relevant muscles. Lead author Boris Chagnaud told the University, "This feedforward principle is crucial."2 If the timing were off, then the system would disrupt balance instead of helping it.

How could a system with this kind of exquisite timing—the brain, brainstem, spinal cord, spine, ear, VO, neurons, and muscles all working in exacting and concerted harmony to make seamless locomotion—have originated? According to Chagnaud, "Here, evolution has not only come up with an elegant means of anticipating the effects of locomotion on the body but also of compensating for them in an adaptive fashion."

Natural forces never anticipate. They cannot think ahead because they do not have minds, will, or volition. However, intelligent minds can anticipate. Does this indicate that supernatural forces were involved?

What experiment has determined that evolution deserves the credit for constructing this elaborate system? One could substitute the word "magic" in place of "evolution" to further reveal the complete lack of science behind Chagnaud's statement. We see neither magic nor nature inventing such sophisticated machinery. But we do see actual designers do it. The Creator, not evolution, deserves the credit. The God of the Bible anticipates needs and meets them in advance.3

References

  1. Changaud, B. P., et al. 2015. Spinal corollary discharge modulates motion sensing during vertebrate locomotion. Nature Communications. 6 (7982): doi:10.1038/ncomms8982.
  2. Signal replicas make a flexible sensor. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München press release. Posted on en.uni-muenchen.de September 4, 2015, accessed September 10, 2015.
  3. For example, the Bible teaches that God anticipated our need for salvation and met this need in His Son Jesus. "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him" (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on September 24, 2015.

The Latest
NEWS
Was an Insect Ancestor Discovered?
There is nothing simple about an animal group called the euarthropods (phylum Euarthropoda), which includes insects, crustaceans, and extinct trilobites. Evolutionists...

NEWS
October 2024 ICR Wallpaper
"The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light...

NEWS
Collapsed Utah Arch Prompts Questions about Arch Formation
We lost a natural wonder to gravity and erosion on Thursday, August 8, 2024.1 Those who visited Double Arch, also called “Hole in the...

ACTS & FACTS
ICR 2024 Resource Catalog
At the Institute for Creation Research, our mission is not only to conduct research demonstrating how science confirms Scripture but also to share this...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Beetle Blasts and Biomimetics | Creation.Live Podcast: Episode...
Though tiny, the bombardier beetle is a fascinating masterclass in design. Evolutionists claim that this explosive insect came about by chance,...

NEWS
Another Arch Collapse at a National Park
Erosion and other natural forces upon sedimentary formations such as exposed cliffs and arches belie the millions of years during which they allegedly...

CREATION PODCAST
Living in Light of Genesis | The Creation Podcast: Episode 82
The world tells us that the book of Genesis is, if not entirely, at least partially a myth. We are told that history, archaeology, and science...

NEWS
Does Pauli Exclusion Rescue Dino Protein?
Perhaps no other fossil discoveries have rocked the world of paleontology more than original organics like proteins in old bones. ICR helps curate a...

NEWS
Support the ICR Discovery Center on North Texas Giving Day 2024!
It's North Texas Giving Day! We invite you to support our unique creation museum and planetarium in Dallas, TX—the ICR Discovery Center. Your...

NEWS
Evolution's Hypothetical Last Universal Common Ancestor
Evolutionists utilize a theoretical tree of life that takes people, plants, and animals back into deep evolutionary time to an unobserved, unknown,...