Do snails get dizzy?

Thanks to Jon Ablett for the answer!

James - The first thing to say is that we humans feel dizziness as a result of our vestibular system. That is the sensory system in our inner ear that helps us maintain balance and spatial orientation. If you spin around really fast fluid in your ear moves really fast too. This will start to make you feel dizzy even while you're still spinning. But when you stop, the liquid in your balance organ keeps moving for some time after. So your brain gives you the disorienting feeling that you're still spinning. But what's going on in snails? Do they have similar anatomy to us in this regard? John Ablett is senior curator of moca at the Natural History Museum.

Jon - How do snails understand their 3D position in their environment? They do that through statocysts, and these are structures in the head that sense movement and orientation in relation to gravity, and of course acceleration and deceleration. And it's similar to how a fish senses its position in an aquatic environment. So statocysts are capsules filled with liquid and there are statolith lifts floating within these. And as soon as the snail moves or changes its position, inertia makes the statoliths float, hitting the statocyst wall. And there are small hairs that detect the contact point, which is then processed and allows the snail to work out its position in space. So that's how a snail senses its environment. And this is very different from how we do. And so in short, although it's probably very hard to say for certain, it's very, very unlikely that snails get dizzy.

James - Unlike our more sophisticated vestibular system, complete with semicircular canals, which indicate rotational movement, snails rely on less information-rich signals detected by hairs surrounding status assist as they knock into them, which is why we think snails probably don't get dizzy.