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Updated: Jun 4, 2025

Three Dimensional Vestibular Ocular Reflex Testing Using a Six Degrees of Freedom Motion Platform
Published on: May 23, 2013
Sensation is dispensable for the maturation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex
Paige Leary1, Celine Bellegarda1, Cheryl Quainoo1
1Department of Otolaryngology, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, and the Neuroscience Institute, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract:
Vertebrates stabilize gaze using a neural circuit that transforms sensed instability into compensatory counterrotation of the eyes. Sensory feedback tunes this vestibulo-ocular reflex throughout life. We studied the functional development of vestibulo-ocular reflex circuit components in the larval zebrafish, with and without sensation. Blind fish stabilize gaze normally, and neural responses to body tilts mature before behavior. In contrast, synapses between motor neurons and the eye muscles mature with a time course similar to behavioral maturation. Larvae without vestibular sensory experience, but with mature neuromuscular junctions, had a strong vestibulo-ocular reflex. Development of the neuromuscular junction, and not sensory experience, therefore determines the rate of maturation of an ancient behavior.
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