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: 94/6/3860    most recent 01102.2004v1 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 Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (3) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Yakushin, S. B. Articles by Cohen, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Yakushin, S. B. Articles by Cohen, B.

Spatial Properties of Central Vestibular Neurons of Monkeys After Bilateral Lateral Canal Nerve Section

¹Departments of Neurology and ²Physiology and Biophysics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York; ³Department of Computer and Information Science, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, New York; ⁴Department of Anatomy, University of Münich, Munich, Germany; and ⁵Department of Otolaryngology, Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan

Submitted 22 November 2004; accepted in final form 23 June 2005

Thirty-seven neurons were recorded in the superior vestibular nucleus (SVN) of two cynomolgus monkeys 1–2 yr after bilateral lateral canal nerve section to test whether the central neurons had spatially adapted for the loss of lateral canal input. The absence of lateral canal function was verified with eye movement recordings. The relation of unit activity to the vertical canals was determined by oscillating the animals about a horizontal axis with the head in various orientations relative to the axis of rotation. Animals were also oscillated about a vertical axis while upright or tilted in pitch. In the second test, the vertical canals are maximally activated when the animals are tilted back about –50° from the spatial upright and the lateral canals when the animals are tilted forward about 30°. We reasoned that if central compensation occurred, the head orientation at which the response of the vertical canal-related neurons was maximal should be shifted toward the plane of the lateral canals. No lateral canal-related units were found after nerve section, and vertical canal-related units were found only in SVN not in the rostral medial vestibular nucleus. SVN canal-related units were maximally activated when the head was tilted back at –47 ± 17 and –50 ± 12° (means ± SD) in the two animals, close to the predicted orientation of the vertical canals. This indicated that spatial adaptation of vertical canal-related vestibular neurons had not occurred. There were substantial neck and/or otolith-related inputs activating the vertical canal-related neurons in the nerve-sectioned animals, which could have contributed to oculomotor compensation after nerve section.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Haque, M. Zakir, and J. D. Dickman Recovery of Gaze Stability During Vestibular Regeneration J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2008; 99(2): 853 - 865. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. Xiang, S. B. Yakushin, B. Cohen, and T. Raphan Modeling Gravity-Dependent Plasticity of the Angular Vestibuloocular Reflex With a Physiologically Based Neural Network J Neurophysiol, December 1, 2006; 96(6): 3349 - 3361. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]