Spatio-temporal information about head orientation and movement is fundamental to the sense of balance and motion. Hair cells (HCs) in otolith organs of the vestibular system transduce linear acceleration, including head tilt and vibration. Here, we build a tiltable objective microscope in which an objective lens and specimen tilt together. With in vivo Ca²⁺ imaging of all utricular HCs and ganglion neurons during 360° static tilt and vibration in pitch and roll axes, we reveal the direction- and static/dynamic stimulus-selective topographic responses in larval zebrafish. We find that head vibration is preferentially received by striolar HCs, whereas static tilt is preferentially transduced by extrastriolar HCs. Spatially ordered direction preference in HCs is consistent with hair-bundle polarity and is preserved in ganglion neurons through topographic innervation. Together, these results demonstrate topographically organized selectivity for direction and dynamics of head orientation/movement in the vestibular periphery.

有关头部方向和运动的时空信息是平衡感和运动感的基础。前庭系统耳石器官中的毛细胞 (HC) 转换线性加速度，包括头部倾斜和振动。在这里，我们构建了一个可倾斜物镜显微镜，其中物镜和样本一起倾斜。通过对所有椭圆囊 HC 和神经节神经元在俯仰轴和横滚轴的 360° 静态倾斜和振动期间进行体内 Ca ²⁺成像，我们揭示了斑马鱼幼虫的方向和静态/动态刺激选择性地形反应。我们发现头部振动优先由纹状体 HC 接收，而静态倾斜则优先由纹状体外 HC 传递。 HC 中的空间有序方向偏好与发束极性一致，并通过地形神经支配保留在神经节神经元中。总之，这些结果证明了前庭周边头部方向/运动的方向和动态的地形组织选择性。