Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
J Neurophysiol. 2011 Apr;105(4):1689-700. doi: 10.1152/jn.00981.2010. Epub 2011 Feb 9.
Vestibular responses play an important role in maintaining gaze and posture stability during rotational motion. Previous studies suggest that these responses are state dependent, their expression varying with the environmental and locomotor conditions of the animal. In this study, we simulated an ethologically relevant state in the laboratory to study state-dependent vestibular responses in birds. We used frontal airflow to simulate gliding flight and measured pigeons' eye, head, and tail responses to rotational motion in darkness, under both head-fixed and head-free conditions. We show that both eye and head response gains are significantly higher during flight, thus enhancing gaze and head-in-space stability. We also characterize state-specific tail responses to pitch and roll rotation that would help to maintain body-in-space orientation during flight. These results demonstrate that vestibular sensorimotor processing is not fixed but depends instead on the animal's behavioral state.
前庭反应在旋转运动中维持凝视和姿势稳定性方面起着重要作用。先前的研究表明，这些反应是状态依赖的，它们的表达随着动物的环境和运动条件而变化。在这项研究中，我们在实验室中模拟了一种与生态学相关的状态，以研究鸟类的状态依赖的前庭反应。我们使用前向气流模拟滑翔飞行，并在黑暗中、头固定和头自由条件下测量鸽子的眼睛、头部和尾部对旋转运动的反应。我们表明，在飞行过程中，眼睛和头部的反应增益显著提高，从而增强了凝视和头在空间中的稳定性。我们还描述了特定于状态的俯仰和滚动旋转的尾部反应，这有助于在飞行过程中保持身体在空间中的方向。这些结果表明，前庭感觉运动处理不是固定的，而是取决于动物的行为状态。
