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Eye–head coordination in the guinea pig I. Responses to passive whole-body rotations

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Abstract

Vestibular reflexes act to stabilize the head and eyes in space during locomotion. Head stability is essential for postural control, whereas retinal image stability enhances visual acuity and may be essential for an animal to distinguish self-motion from that of an object in the environment. Guinea pig eye and head movements were measured during passive whole-body rotation in order to assess the efficacy of vestibular reflexes. The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) produced compensatory eye movements with a latency of ~7 ms that compensated for 46% of head movement in the dark and only slightly more in the light (54%). Head movements, in response to abrupt body rotations, also contributed to retinal stability (21% in the dark; 25% in the light) but exhibited significant variability. Although compensatory eye velocity produced by the VOR was well correlated with head-in-space velocity, compensatory head-on-body speed and direction were variable and poorly correlated with body speed. The compensatory head movements appeared to be determined by passive biomechanical (e.g., inertial effects, initial tonus) and active mechanisms (the vestibulo-collic reflex or VCR). Chemically induced, bilateral lesions of the peripheral vestibular system abolished both compensatory head and eye movement responses.

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Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge the contribution of Keiji Takemura, M.D. who helped us develop the methodology for testing guinea pigs; Kevin Lim for his programming expertise; Scott Loewenstein who collected some of the data reported here; Beth Hand and James Liadis for data collection and animal care and handling. Dwayne Valliencourt designed and built the specialized animal restraints and Chris Ellinger kept our electronics running. This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants: P30 NDC005188-07, R21-DC008607-01, and T32 DC000011–30.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    N. Shanidze, Y. Raphael & W. M. King

  2. Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan, 1150 W. Medical Center Drive, Room 4605, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5616, USA

    N. Shanidze, Y. Raphael & W. M. King

  3. Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    N. Shanidze

  4. New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, New York, NY, USA

    A. H. Kim

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  1. N. Shanidze
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Correspondence to N. Shanidze.

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Shanidze, N., Kim, A.H., Raphael, Y. et al. Eye–head coordination in the guinea pig I. Responses to passive whole-body rotations. Exp Brain Res 205, 395–404 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2374-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2374-4

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