Vestibular-induced vomiting after vestibulocerebellar lesions.

Vestibular stimulation, by means of sinusoidal electrical polarization of the labyrinths of decerebrate cats, can produce vomiting and related activity resembling that seen in motion sickness. The symptoms include panting, salivation, swallowing, and retching as well as vomiting. These symptoms can be produced in cats with lesions of the posterior cerebellar vermis. In contrast to a previous proposal by Wang and Chinn in 1956, we suggest that a transcerebellar pathway from the vestibular apparatus through the nodulus and uvula to the 'vomiting center' is not essential for vestibular-induced vomiting and, by analogy, for the occurrence of many symptoms of motion sickness.