The role of different size vestibulospinal neurons in the static control of posture

1. In addition to giant cells, originally described by Deiters, the lateral vestibular nucleus contains also medium- and small-size cells. The role that these neurons exert in the static control of posture has been investigated in precollicular decerebrate cats in which the resting discharge of spontaneously active vestibulospinal neurons projecting to lumbosacral segments of the spinal cord (IVS neurons) has been related to the cell size inferred on the basis of the conduction velocity of their axons. 2. In control experiments, the IVS neurons with slower axonal conduction velocity and, by inference, having thinner axons and smaller cell bodies differed from those having faster conduction velocity by displaying a higher resting discharge rate and a relatively regular interspike interval distribution, i.e. a lower coefficient of variation (CV). 3. The resting discharge of the IVS neurons, which corresponded on the average to 24.5 +/- 15.7, S.D. imp./sec, in control experiments, increased significantly to 44.1 +/- 23.8, S.D. imp./sec after ablation of the cerebellar vermis and the fastigial nuclei, leading to a great increase in postural activity, while the proportion of regularly discharging units (with the lowest CV) increased. Moreover, the negative correlation between resting discharge of all the recorded IVS neurons and the conduction velocity of the corresponding axons, which was quite slight in the experiments with the cerebellum intact, greatly increased after partial cerebellectomy. This finding was due to a prominent increase in resting discharge of the small-size IVS neurons, while the discharge of the large-size IVS neurons was, on the average, comparable to that obtained in the controls. It appears, therefore, that the cerebellum exerts a prominent tonic inhibitory influence on the small-size IVS neurons, which are thus responsible for the great increase in decerebrate rigidity after cerebellectomy. 4. The resting discharge rate of the IVS neurons was not, on the average, greatly modified after ipsilateral acute (aVN) and chronic vestibular neurectomy (cVN) with respect to the controls. However, the proportion of regularly discharging units (with the lowest CV) decreased after aVN, but increased after cVN. The relation found in control experiments, i.e. the faster the conduction velocity of VS axon the lower was the unit discharge at rest, was lost after aVN, due to a decrease in resting discharge rate of the slow neurons. The mean discharge rate of these units, however, recovered after cVN, so that the negative correlation between resting discharge rate and axonal conduction velocity was reestablished.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)