Effects of leg-to-body position on the responses of rat cerebellar and vestibular nuclear neurons to labyrinthine stimulation
Cerebellum. 2011-07-08; 11(1): 212-222
DOI: 10.1007/s12311-011-0298-6
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1. Cerebellum. 2012 Mar;11(1):212-22. doi: 10.1007/s12311-011-0298-6.
Effects of leg-to-body position on the responses of rat cerebellar and vestibular
nuclear neurons to labyrinthine stimulation.
Barresi M(1), Bruschini L, Li Volsi G, Manzoni D.
Author information:
(1)Department of Physiological Sciences, Pisa University, Via S. Zeno 31, 56127
Pisa, Italy.
The spatial organization of vestibulospinal (VS) reflexes, elicited by
labyrinthine signals and related to head motion, depends on the direction of body
tilt, due to proprioceptive neck afferents acting through the cerebellar anterior
vermis. The responses of Purkinje cells located within this region to
labyrinthine stimulation are modulated by the head-to-body position. We
investigated, in urethane-anesthetized rats, whether a 90° leg-to-trunk
displacement modifies the responses of corticocerebellar and vestibular nuclear
neurons to the labyrinthine input, which would indicate that VS reflexes are
tuned by the leg-to-trunk position. With this aim, unit activity was recorded
during « wobble » stimuli that allow evaluating the gain and spatiotemporal
properties of neuronal responses. The response gain of corticocerebellar units
showed a significant drop in the leg-rotated position with respect to the control
one. Following a change in leg position, a proportion of the recorded neurons
showed significant changes in the direction and phase of the response vector. In
contrast, vestibular nuclear neurons did not show significant modifications in
their response gain and direction. Thus, proprioceptive afferents signaling
leg-to-trunk position seem to affect the processing of directional labyrinthine
signals within the cerebellar cortex.
DOI: 10.1007/s12311-011-0298-6
PMID: 21739187 [Indexed for MEDLINE]