Target neurons of floccular middle zone inhibition in medial vestibular nucleus

Unitary activities of 288 neurons were recorded extracellularly in the medial vestibular nucleus (MV) in anesthetized cats. In 19 neurons, located in the rostral part of the MV adjacent to the stria acustica, floccular middle zone stimulation resulted in cessation of spontaneous discharges. Systematic microstimulation in the brainstem during recording of 16 of 19 target neurons of floccular middle zone inhibition revealed that the target neurons projected to the ipsilateral abducens nucleus (ABN), and not to the contralateral ABN nor the oculomotor nucleus. The conjugate ipsilateral horizontal eye movement elicited by middle zone stimulation may be mediated by this pathway to motoneurons and internuclear neurons in the ipsilateral ABN. In additional experiments, the MV neurons responding antidromically to ipsilateral ABN stimulation and orthodromically to ipsilateral 8 nerve stimulation were recorded extracellularly. In only 7 of 36 recorded neurons, middle zone stimulation depressed the orthodromic and spontaneous activities. Many neurons were free of floccular inhibition. As to the route of floccular inhibitory control over the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) during visual-vestibular stimulation, we propose that the interaction of target and VOR relay neurons takes place at the ipsilateral ABN and modulates the VOR, in addition to well known Ito's proposal that the interaction of the floccular output and the VOR takes place at secondary vestibular neurons and modulates the VOR.