Responses of rostral fastigial neurons to linear acceleration in an alert monkey

Vestibular-only neuronal responses to angular acceleration have been systematically characterized in the rostral fastigial nucleus (FN) by several studies. However, responses of these neurons to linear acceleration have not been examined. In this study, we recorded single-unit activity of vestibular-only neurons in an alert monkey during pure sinusoidal linear acceleration along different directions in the horizontal plane. Spatiotemporal response properties were quantified by computing two-dimensional response ellipses in the horizontal plane. Based on this analysis, neurons were classified as narrowly or broadly tuned. About 29% (5/17) of neurons were broadly tuned. The other 71% (12/17) were narrowly tuned. Unlike vestibular nuclei neurons, all recorded FN neurons exhibited irregular resting discharge rates (CV*0.2). Based on studies of linear motion-sensitive neurons in the vestibular nuclei, the data suggest that irregular neurons in the rostral FN and the vestibular nuclei have similar responses to linear acceleration in behaving monkeys.