Role of cerebellar flocculus in adaptive interaction between optokinetic eye movement response and vestibulo-ocular reflex in pigmented rabbits.

Sustained sinusoidal oscillation of a striped cylindrical screen around a stationary, alert pigmented rabbit with certain parameters (for 4 h. 5 degrees, 7.5 degrees, 10 degrees peak-to-peak, 0.1 or 0.2 Hz) adaptively modified not only the horizontal optokinetic reflex (HOKR) but also the horizontal vestibuloocular reflex (HVOR). The major effects thus obtained during 4 h were an increase in the HOKR gain by 0.23, and that of the HVOR gain by 0.18. Bilateral destruction of floccular Purkinje cells with microinjection of kainic acid abolished these effects on both HOKR and HVOR. Single unit activities of floccular Purkinje cells were recorded from the floccular areas related to horizontal eye movements (H-zone) with local stimulus effects. Most H-zone Purkinje cells normally exhibited modulation of simple spike discharge in phase with screen velocity and out of phase with turntable velocity. Sustained screen oscillation (7.5 degrees, 0.1 Hz) for 1 h increased the simple spike responses not only to screen but also to turntable oscillation. No such changes were observed in other floccular areas. These observations suggest that sustained optokinetic stimulations induce adaptation of HVOR through an interaction of retinal slip and head velocity signals within the flocculus or its related neuronal tissues.