The eye movements evoked by a rotating linear acceleration vector in the cat depend on a central velocity storage mechanism.

The otoliths are stimulated in a particular pattern by any head movement that is not about an earth-vertical axis and evoke compensatory eye movements in the cat. Such eye movements are not produced if the otolith stimulation is accompanied by vertical canal stimulation. Vertical canal stimulation inactivates the velocity store (a central neural representation of head velocity) as seen by the attenuation of optokinetic after-nystagmus. These observations provide further evidence for the involvement of the central velocity store in the generation of otolith-evoked nystagmus.