Abstract
Upward drift of the eyes in darkness, influenced by whole body orientation, was studied in 12 cats using electromagnetic search coil and electro-oculographic techniques. Animals were positioned stationary with respect to gravity with 0° tilt (“upright”) or rolled 90° (“on side”), pitched 90° (“on nose” or “on tail”), or inverted 180° (“upside down”). A downbeat quick-phase nystagmus (slow-phase upward in the cat's orbit) was measured, varying in magnitude with angle of tilt (0.21°/s at 0° tilt; 4.14°/s at 180° tilt). The drift was not present in the light. Upward eye velocities over a range of body orientations in darkness suggest a systematic drive to the eyes which increases with tilt away from upright. The relationship of this behavior to previous models of angular velocity estimation by an otolith-driven central mechanism is discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anderson JH, Blanks RH, Precht W (1978) Response characteristics of semicircular canal and otolith systems in cat. I. Dynamic responses of primary vestibular fibers. Exp Brain Res 32: 491–507
Anderson JH, Precht W, Pappas C (1979) Changes in the vertical vestibulo-ocular reflex due to kainic acid lesions of the interstitial nucleus of Cajal. Neurosci Lett 14: 259–264
Angelaki DE, Hess BJM (1995) Inertial representation of angular motion in the vestibular system of rhesus monkeys. II. Otolithcontrolled transformation that depends on an intact cerebellar nodulus. J Neurophysiol 73: 1729–1751
Baloh RW, Richman L, Yee RD, Honrubia V (1983) The dynamics of vertical eye movements in normal human subjects. Aviat Space Environ Med 54: 32–38
Barmack NH (1981) A comparison of the horizontal and vertical vestibulo-ocular reflexes in the rabbit. J Physiol (Lond) 314: 547–564
Benson AJ, Guedry FE (1971) Comparison of tracking-task performance and nystagmus during sinusoidal oscillation in yaw and pitch. Aerospace Med 42: 593–601
Bond HW, Ho P (1970) Solid miniature silver-silver chloride electrodes for chronic implantation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 29: 206–208
Darlot C, Denise P (1988) Nystagmus induced by off-vertical rotation axis in the cat. Exp Brain Res 73: 78–90
Darlot C, Lopez-Barneo J, Tracey D (1981) Asymmetries of vertical vestibular nystagmus in the cat. Exp Brain Res 41: 420–426
Daunton N, Melvill Jones G (1973) Directional representation of horizontal and vertical acceleration in the neural activity of cat vestibular nuclei (abstract). Proc Annu Sci Meet Aerospace Med Assoc, Las Vegas, Nev, p 144
Ezure K, Graf W (1984) A quantitative analysis of the spatial organization of the vestibulo-ocular reflexes in lateral and frontal-eyed animals. I. Orientations of semicircular canals and extraocular muscles. Neuroscience 12: 85–93
Fernández C, Goldberg JM (1976) Physiology of peripheral neurons innervating otolith organs of the squirrel monkey. II. Directional selectivity and force-response relations. J Neurophysiol 39: 985–995
Guedry FE, Benson AJ (1970) Tracking performance during sinusoidal stimulation of the vertical and horizontal semicircular canals. In: Busby DE (ed) Recent advances in aerospace medicine. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp 276–288
Matsuo V, Cohen B (1984) Vertical optokinetic nystagmus and vestibular nystagmus in monkey: up-down asymmetry and effects of gravity. Exp Brain Res 53: 197–216
Paige G (1991) Linear vestibulo-ocular reflex (LVOR) and modulation by vergence. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) Suppl 481: 282–286
Paige GD, Tomko DL (1991) Eye movement responses to linear head motion in the squirrel monkey. II. Visual-vestibular interactions and kinematic considerations. J Neurophysiol 65: 1183–1196
Rude SA, Baker JF (1994) Modulation and bias of the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) during low velocity horizontal axis pitch rotations. Soc Neurosci Abstr 20: 1195
Rude SA, Powell KD, Baker JF (1991) Effects of roll tilt on pitch vertical vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Soc Neurosci Abstr 17: 314
Schwartz U, Bussettini C, Miles F (1989) Ocular responses to linear motion are inversely proportional to viewing distance. Science 245: 1394–1396
Viirre E, Tweed D, Milner K, Vilis T (1990) A reexamination of the gain of the vestibuloocular reflex. J Neurophysiol 56: 439–450
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rude, S.A., Baker, J.F. Otolith orientation and downbeat nystagmus in the normal cat. Exp Brain Res 111, 144–148 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229564
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229564