HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 101/3/1258    most recent 90977.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tollin, D. J. Articles by Yin, T. C. T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Tollin, D. J. Articles by Yin, T. C. T.

The Vestibulo-Auricular Reflex

¹Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; ²Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Aurora, Colorado; and ³Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Submitted 29 July 2008; accepted in final form 1 January 2009

Abstract

The mammalian orienting response to sounds consists of a gaze shift that can be a combination of head and eye movements. In animals with mobile pinnae, the ears also move. During head movements, vision is stabilized by compensatory rotations of the eyeball within the head because of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). While studying the gaze shifts made by cats to sounds, a previously uncharacterized compensatory movement was discovered. The pinnae exhibited short-latency, goal-directed movements that reached their target while the head was still moving. The pinnae maintained a fixed position in space by counter-rotating on the head with an equal but opposite velocity to the head movement. We call these compensatory ear movements the vestibulo-auricular reflex (VAR) because they shared many kinematic characteristics with the VOR. Control experiments ruled out efference copy of head position signals and acoustic tracking (audiokinetic) of the source as the cause of the response. The VAR may serve to stabilize the auditory world during head movements.