Responses to efferent activation and excitatory response-intensity relations of turtle posterior-crista afferents

Multivariate statistical formulas were used to infer the morphological type and longitudinal position of extracellularly recorded afferents. Efferent fibers were stimulated electrically in the nerve branch interconnecting the anterior and posterior VIIIth nerves. Responses of bouton (B) units depended on their inferred position: BP units (near the planum semilunatum) showed small excitatory responses; BT units (near the torus) were inhibited; BM units (in an intermediate position) had a mixed response, including an initial inhibition and a delayed excitation. Calyx-bearing (CD-high) units with an appreciable background discharge showed large per-train excitatory responses followed by smaller post-train responses that could outlast the shock train by 100 s. Excitatory responses were smaller in calyx-bearing (CD-low) units having little or no background activity than in CD-high units. Excitatory response-intensity functions, derived from the discharge during 2-s angular-velocity ramps varying in intensity, were fit by empirical functions that gave estimates of the maximal response (r(MAX)), a threshold velocity (v(T)), and the velocity producing a half-maximal response (v(1/2)). Linear gain is equal to r(MAX)/v(S), v(S) = v(1/2) - v(T). v(S) provides a measure of the velocity range over which the response is nearly linear. For B units, r(MAX) declines by as much as twofold over the 2-s ramp, whereas for CD units, r(MAX) increases by 15% during the same time period. At the end of the ramp, r(MAX) is on average twice as high in CD as in B units. Thresholds are negligible in most spontaneously active units, including almost all B and CD-high units. Silent CD-low units typically have thresholds of 10-100 deg/s. BT units have very high linear gains and v(S) < 10 deg/s. Linear gains are considerably lower in BP units and v(S) > 150 deg/s. CD-high units have intermediate gains and near 100 deg/s v(S) values. CD-low units have low gains and v(S) values ranging from 150 to more than 300 deg/s. The results suggest that BT units are designed to measure the small head movements involved in postural control, whereas BP and CD units are more appropriate for monitoring large volitional head movements. The former units are silenced by efferent activation, whereas the latter units are excited. This suggests that the efferent system switches the turtle posterior crista from a "postural" to a "volitional" mode.