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Saccule contribution to immediate early gene induction in the gerbil brainstem with posterior canal galvanic or hypergravity stimulationImmunolabeling patterns of the immediate early gene-related protein Fos in the gerbil brainstem were studied following stimulation of the sacculus by both hypergravity and galvanic stimulation. Head-restrained, alert animals were exposed to a prolonged (1 h) inertial vector of 2 G (19.6 m/s2) head acceleration directed in a dorso-ventral head axis to maximally stimulate the sacculus. Fos-defined immunoreactivity was quantified, and the results compared to a control group. The hypergravity stimulus produced Fos immunolabeling in the dorsomedial cell column (dmcc) of the inferior olive independently of other subnuclei. Similar dmcc labeling was induced by a 30 min galvanic stimulus of up to -100 microA applied through a stimulating electrode placed unilaterally on the bony labyrinth overlying the posterior canal (PC). The pattern of vestibular afferent firing activity induced by this galvanic stimulus was quantified in anesthetized gerbils by simultaneously recording from Scarpa's ganglion. Only saccular and PC afferent neurons exhibited increases in average firing rates of 200-300%, suggesting a pattern of current spread involving only PC and saccular afferent neurons at this level of stimulation. These results suggest that alteration in saccular afferent firing rates are sufficient to induce Fos-defined genomic activation of the dmcc, and lend further evidence to the existence of a functional vestibulo-olivary-cerebellar pathway of adaptation to novel gravito-inertial environments.
Document ID
20040172943
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Marshburn, T. H.
(University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Internal Medicine Galveston 77555-1063, United States)
Kaufman, G. D.
Purcell, I. M.
Perachio, A. A.
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
June 27, 1997
Publication Information
Publication: Brain research
Volume: 761
Issue: 1
ISSN: 0006-8993
Subject Category
Aerospace Medicine
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: DC00385
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
NASA Discipline Neuroscience
Non-NASA Center

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