New Representations of Otolithic Primary Afferent Spatial Tuning—A Re-processing of the Fernández & Goldberg (1976) Data

Abstract

In 1976 Fernández & Goldberg published detailed results of the polarization vectors for squirrel monkey primary otolithic afferents (1). Each vector represented the direction in three-dimensional space of the linear acceleration which caused maximum facilitation of the otolith afferent. The published plots were separate views of the projections of the polarization vectors of all the individual neurons in the superior (mainly utricular) and inferior (mainly saccular) divisions of the vestibular nerve. There were distinctly different clusters of vectors for each division. We have used new computer graphic procedures to re-process these data and show the data three-dimensionally in relation to the major planes of the head.

Key Words:

• otolith
• utricle
• saccule
• labyrinth
• vestibular