Vestibular and Oculomotor Physiology: International Meeting of the Barany Society. Volume 374. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract
Rapid progress has been made in recent years toward understanding how the central nervous system processes visual and vestibular signals to produce eye movements and body postural responses. One of the most fascinating developments has been the discovery that many neurons in the central vestibular system fire in relation to the velocity of head movement, and respond to any sensory input that would be utilized in initiating or sustaining ocular nystagmus and the sense of movement. Of these extralabyrinthine inputs, that from the visual system is one of the strongest. Most cells in the rostral medial vestibular nucleus of the alert monkey can be activated by visual stimulation. Adding to the activity of central vestibular neurons are neural networks that superpose the inputs from various sensory systems, store activity, and feed it back to alter the characteristics of the vestibulo-ocular reflex so that it more faithfully compensates for head movement. As a result, activity of vestibular nuclei neurons during head rotation at low frequencies is much different than the firing rates of receptor cells in the semicircular canals. (kr)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 06, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA217803
Entities
People
- Bernard Cohen
Organizations
- New York Academy of Sciences