Authors: Keisuke Kushiro Rishu Bai Naoharu Kitajima Akemi SugitaKitajima Yoshio Uchino
Publish Date: 2008/10/02
Volume: 191, Issue: 3, Pages: 257-264
Abstract
We studied the axonal projections of vestibulospinal neurons activated from the posterior semicircular canal The axonal projection level axonal pathway and location of the vestibulospinal neurons originating from the PC were investigated in seven decerebrated cats Selective electrical stimulation was applied to the PC nerve and extracellular recordings in the vestibular nuclei were performed The properties of the PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons were then studied To estimate the neural pathway in the spinal cord floating electrodes were placed at the ipsilateral i and contralateral c lateral vestibulospinal tract LVST and medial vestibulospinal tract MVST at the C1/C2 junction To elucidate the projection level floating electrodes were placed at iLVST and MVST at the C3 T1 and L3 segments in the spinal cord Collision block test between orthodromic inputs from the PC nerve and antidromic inputs from the spinal cord verified the existence of the vestibulospinal neurons in the vestibular nuclei Most 44/47 of the PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons responded to orthodromic stimulation to the PC nerve with a short 14 ms latency indicating that they were secondorder vestibulospinal neurons The rest 3/47 responded with a longer ≥14 ms latency indicating the existence of polysynaptic connections In 36/47 PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons the axonal pathway was histologically verified to lie in the spinal cord The axons of 17/36 vestibulospinal neurons projected to the iLVST whereas 14 neurons projected to the MVST and 5 to the cLVST The spinal segment levels of projection of these neurons elucidated that the axons of most 15/17 of vestibulospinal neurons passing through the iLVST reached the L3 segment level none 0/14 of the neurons passing through the MVST extended to the L3 segment level most 13/14 of them did not descend lower than the C3 segment level In relation to the latency and the pathway 33/36 PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons were secondorder neurons whereas the remaining three were polysynaptic neurons Of these 33 secondorder vestibulospinal neurons 16 passed through the iLVST while 13 and 4 descended through the MVST and cLVST respectively The remaining three were polysynaptic neurons Histological analysis showed that most of the PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons were located within a specific area in the medial part of the lateral vestibular nucleus and the rostral part of the descending vestibular nucleus In conclusion it was suggested that PC nerveactivated vestibulospinal neurons that were located within a focal area of the vestibular nuclei have strong connections with the lower segments of the spinal cord and are related to postural stability that is maintained by the short latency vestibulospinal reflexWe thank Dr M Sasaki Dr H Sato and Ms M Imagawa for technical contribution and Ms K Takayama for secretarial assistance This study was supported by a research grant from the Japan Space Forum promoted by NASDA National Space Development Agency of Japan KK was supported in part by the Global COE Program “Revitalizing Education for Dynamic Hearts and Minds” MEXT Japan
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