Response of central vestibular neurons to horizontal linear acceleration in the rat

Abstract

Responses of central vestibular neurons to horizontal sinusoidal translation (F:0.25Hz) were recorded in albino rat. 57.5% of vestibular neurons were responding to this stimulation by a modulation of their firing rate, the mean phase angle of the response, averaged from the whole population being 22 +/- 79 deg. lag, relative to the peak of contralateral acceleration. Dynamic characteristics of phase and gain were studied and appeared to be different from previous reports on primary afferents: the gain decreased or was flat with increasing acceleration at one frequency, and the phase lag which was flat in the same conditions increased with increasing frequency. A phase lead of some units has been observed at low frequency (0.1 Hz). Regarding the convergence between otolith and canal inputs on nuclear vestibular neurons, it was shown that the major pattern of convergence is between canal and otolith inputs of same polarity.