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Summary: The Journal of Neuroscience, April 1993, 13(4): 1403-l 417
Two-Dimensional Spatiotemporal Coding of Linear Acceleration in
Vestibular Nuclei Neurons
Dora E. Angelaki,' Geoffrey A. Bush,lsa and Adrian A. Perachioi.2.3
DeDartments of 10tolarvnaoloav, 2Phvsiolow and BioDhvsics,and 3Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Texas
,Me'dicalBranch, Galve&oE, T&s 77555 --
Response properties of vertical (VC) and horizontal (HC)
canal/otolith-convergent vestibular nuclei neurons were
studied in decerebrate rats during stimulation with sinusoi-
dal linear accelerations (0.2-1.4 Hz) along different direc-
tions in the head horizontal plane. A novel characteristic of
the majority of tested neurons was the nonzero response
often elicited during stimulation along the "null" direction
(i.e., the direction perpendicular to the maximum sensitivity
vector, S,,,). The tuning ratio (S,, gain/S,,, gain), a measure
of the two-dimensional spatial sensitivity, depended on stim-
ulus frequency. For most vestibular nuclei neurons, the tun-
ing ratio was small at the lowest stimulus frequencies and
progressively increased with frequency. Specifically, HC
neurons were characterized by a flat S,,, gain and an ap-
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