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Vestibular Nuclei and Their Cerebellar Connections

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Essentials of Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders

Abstract

The vestibular complex exists at a sensory-motor crossroad that is composed of five separate nuclei defined primarily by a common vestibular primary afferent projection. These five nuclei are located just beneath the dorsal surface of the medullary brainstem. They include: Descending, lateral, medial and superior nuclei (DVN, LVN, MVN and SVN) as well as the Parasolitary nucleus (Psol). Each vestibular nucleus can be recognized by a combination of boundaries that include fiber bundles and histological characteristics such as cell size. With the exception of Psol, a nucleus that is composed of small GABAergic cells (5–7 μm in diameter), the DVN, LVN, MVN and SVN contain a variety of cell types and cell sizes. Here we review the afferent and efferent connections of the vestibular nuclei and discuss how these characteristics might influence function.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR, 97239, USA

    Neal H. Barmack

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  1. Neal H. Barmack
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Correspondence to Neal H. Barmack .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Department, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA

    Donna L. Gruol

  2. Department of Integrative Physiology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

    Noriyuki Koibuchi

  3. FNRS, ULB-Erasme, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Mario Manto

  4. Clinical Translational Research, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy

    Marco Molinari

  5. Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Jeremy D. Schmahmann

  6. Department of Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

    Ying Shen

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Barmack, N.H. (2016). Vestibular Nuclei and Their Cerebellar Connections. In: Gruol, D., Koibuchi, N., Manto, M., Molinari, M., Schmahmann, J., Shen, Y. (eds) Essentials of Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24551-5_8

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