Responses of vestibular nucleus neurons in the visually deprived cat to optokinetic stimulation of central parts of the visual field.

Single cells were recorded in the vestibular nucleus of normal and monocularly deprived cats and stimulated by slowly drifting large area visual patterns. We found no difference in response strength, direction specificity and binocular influence between the neurons recorded in normal and in monocularly deprived cats. This makes it very unlikely that the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) in the pretectum provides a strong direct input to the vestibular nuclei to modulate their activity with visual stimulation.