Effects of lesion of the interstitial nucleus of Cajal on vestibular nuclear neurons activated by vertical vestibular stimulation

Summary

1. Experiments were performed in cats anesthetized with nitrous oxide to study the effects of INC lesions on responses of vestibular nuclear neurons during sinusoidal rotations of the head in the vertical (pitch) plane. Responses of neurons in the INC region were recorded during pitch rotations at 0.15 Hz. A great majority of these neurons did not respond to static pitch tilts, and they seemed to respond either to anterior or to posterior semicircular canal inputs with a peak phase lag of 140 deg (re head acceleration). 2. Responses of vestibular nuclei neurons in intact cats were recorded during pitch rotations at the same frequency (0.15 Hz). Neurons that seemed to respond to vertical semicircular canal inputs showed peak phase lags of 90 deg relative to head acceleration, whereas neurons that responded to static pitch tilts showed peak phase shifts near 0 deg. These results indicate that responses of neurons in the INC region lag those of vestibular neurons by about 50 deg, suggesting that the former neurons possess a phase-lagging (i.e. integrated) vestibular signal. 3. Responses of vestibular neurons in cats that had received electrolytic lesions of bilateral INCs 1–2 weeks previously were recorded during pitch rotations at the same frequency (0.15 Hz). Neurons that presumably responded to vertical semicircular canal inputs showed a peak phase lag of 60 deg relative to head acceleration, a significant decrease of the phase lag compared to normal, whereas responses near 0 deg were unchanged. Gain values of individual cells also significantly dropped from 2.07 ± 0.67 spikes · s⁻¹/deg · s⁻²2 (mean ± SD; normal cats) to 1.27 ± 0.68 spikes · s⁻²/deg · s⁻² (INC lesioned cats) at 0.15 Hz. When responses of vestibular neurons were studied during pitch rotations in the range of 0.044–0.49 Hz in these cats, a large decrease of the phase lag was observed at lower frequencies, whereas the slopes of phase lag curves of vestibular neurons in intact cats were rather flat. 4. Procaine infusion into the bilateral INCs not only resulted in a decrease of 20–50 deg in the phase lag in responses of vestibular neurons that had lagged head acceleration by 90–140 deg before procaine infusion, but also dropped the gain of the response to rotation by an average of 31%, whereas responses of neurons that had showed phase shifts near 0 deg were not influenced consistently. Simultaneous recording of the vestibular neurons and the vertical vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) indicated that the phase advance and gain drop of vestibular neurons occurred earlier than those of the VOR. These results exclude the possibility that the change in dynamic response of vestibular neurons after procaine infusion is due to depression of general brain stem activity that may lead to the phase advance of the VOR, and suggest that the decrease of the phase lag and gain drop in responses of the vestibular neurons was caused by removal of the phase-lagging, feedback signal coming from the INC to the vestibular nuclei.