Properties of superior vestibular nucleus flocculus target neurons in the squirrel monkey. II. Signal components revealed by reversible flocculus inactivation.

1. Seven upward eye velocity flocculus target neurons (FTNs) and two flocculus projecting neurons (FPNs) were studied before and after ipsilateral flocculus inactivation by injection of muscimol in the alert squirrel monkey. An additional seven FTNs and seven FPNs recorded from the corresponding FTN and FPN areas were recorded after injection. Response properties of FTNs and FPNs were characterized by visual-vestibular interaction paradigms and were compared before and after flocculus inactivation. 2. In FTNs the mean firing rate increased within 2-5 min after muscimol injection in the flocculus and reached a plateau level in approximately 10-20 min. The average mean firing rate for seven FTNs increased from 117 to 174 spikes/s, a net increase of 57 spikes/s (49%). Accompanying the large increase of the mean firing rate, a spontaneous nystagmus in the darkness developed with the slow phase directed upward and contralateral. 3. The firing rate modulation during visual following of a sinusoidal optokinetic drum (0.5 Hz) decreased within 2-5 min after muscimol injection in the flocculus and reached a level of 0 in approximately 10-20 min for all FTNs. After that, some cells remained unmodulated for the period of recording; other cells gradually reversed their phase and developed a modulation out of phase with drum velocity. The depletion of the visual following eye velocity signal on superior vestibular nucleus (SVN) FTNs accompanied a small but consistent decrease of visual following eye velocity amplitude. The average maximum decrease of eye velocity was 26 +/- 9% (mean +/- SD). 4. After flocculus inactivation, even though the modulation response at 0.5 Hz during visual following was abolished, a slow-component eye velocity signal with the same on direction was revealed by a constant-velocity optokinetic stimulus. It is concluded that there are at least two kinds of eye velocity signals during the optokinetic response. These signals are combined at the FTNs and are subsequently relayed to the oculomotor neurons. The source of the fast component is the flocculus, and the source of the slow component is another, as yet unidentified brain structure. 5. The effect of flocculus inactivation on the modulation amplitude during the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) in darkness was variable: two cells did not change, two cells decreased, and three cells increased their amplitude. The response phase tended to move toward a phase lead, but the change was small. The effect on VOR suppression was more prominent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)