Analysis of afferent responses from isolated semicircular canal of the guitarfish using rotational acceleration white-noise inputs. I. Correlation of response dynamics with receptor innervation.

The small-signal linear characteristics of afferent responses from the isolated semicircular canal were described by the use of white-noise rotational acceleration inputs. The results, based on cross-correlation analysis, showed a striking and systematic variation in linear system impulse response characteristics from afferents which innervated different regions of the receptor. Afferents from centrally located nerve bundles innervating the crest region of the crista exhibited an initial maximum response amplitude followed by a rapid decay. In contrast, afferents from extreme rostral and caudal nerve bundles innervating the crista slopes exhibited an initial rise up to a low-amplitude maximum followed by a slower decay. These results imply that the afferents innervating a single canal do not merely carry redundant information concerning current head acceleration, but could be considered an ensemble of specific classes of filters that are tuned individually to specific classes of head movements. On the basis of these considerations, a new hypothesis of matched filter detection was proposed as relevant to information processing and dynamic control in central vestibular pathways.