Development of vestibulo-ocular responses in visually deprived kittens

The vestibular system contributes to the stabilisation of visual images on the retina by means of vestibulo-ocular compensatory reactions. The development of vestibular control of eye movements has been studied in twelve week old kittens, reared in total darkness, which have been compared with a control group of kittens reared in normal conditions. Postrotatory nystagmus, nystagmus during sinusoidal oscillations, visual suppression of vestibular nystagmus by fixation and pathological mystagmus following hemilabyrinthectomy, have been used as indicators of the functional state of the vestibulo-ocular control system. The results shown that most of the essential features of this control are present in dark-reared kittens. However, differences have been noted which possibly concern precise regulation of compensatory movements and head-eye coordination. The frequency of vestibular nystagmus is much smaller and the initial deviation of post-rotatory nystagmus in the direction of the change of movement is weak or absent in dark-reared kittens. Habituation also seems to operate differently in the two groups of kittens. Visual suppression of vestibular nystagmus is present, however, showing that an important part of the neuronal basis for visual-vestibular interaction has developed.