Suppression by nitrous oxide of visual responses in the cerebellar vermis and superior colliculus of cats anaesthetized with chloralose

Donaldson, I M L; Long, Adam; Tasker, T.C.G.

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(78)90742-4

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Interestingly, visual responses in the cat superior colliculus are critically a¡ected by at least one anaesthetic combination. Donaldson et al (1978) found that adding nitrous oxide to the oxygen inhaled by cats under chloralose anaesthesia in concentrations as low as 50% abolished or reduced the visual responses of units in the cat superior colliculus. I have also con¢rmed the experience of Fillenz that central activity from EOM stretch is much less marked under barbiturates than under other anaesthetics.…”

Section: Do Extraocular Muscle Afferent Signals Project To the Superimentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The signi¢cance of e¡ects of this kind, developing over days and persisting for weeks, seems clear in the adjustment of oculomotor behaviour to take account of changes in the`plant' produced by disease or by arti¢cial insults to its integrity. Gauthier et al's (1995a) ¢ndings on the modi¢cation of the adaptation of the rat VOR by orbital a¡erent signals also fall into this class and demonstrate yet another facet of the adaptability of this piece of oculomotor behaviour, which itself has often been used as a model for the study of some aspects of motor learning (see, for example, du Lac et al 1995). I have suggested in ½ 13 how manipulation of the EOM a¡erent signal might be used to try to elucidate some of the adaptive processes taking place in the cerebellar £occulus.…”

Section: (I) E¡ects On Gain and Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

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The functions of the proprioceptors of the eye muscles

Donaldson

2000

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

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173

142

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This article sets out to present a fairly comprehensive review of our knowledge about the functions of the receptors that have been found in the extraocular muscles--the six muscles that move each eye of vertebrates in its orbit--of all the animals in which they have been sought, including Man. Since their discovery at the beginning of the 20th century these receptors have, at various times, been credited with important roles in the control of eye movement and the construction of extrapersonal space and have also been denied any function whatsoever. Experiments intended to study the actions of eye muscle receptors and, even more so, opinions (and indeed polemic) derived from these observations have been influenced by the changing fashions and beliefs about the more general question of how limb position and movement is detected by the brain and which signals contribute to those aspects of this that are perceived (kinaesthesis). But the conclusions drawn from studies on the eye have also influenced beliefs about the mechanisms of kinaesthesis and, arguably, this influence has been even larger than that in the converse direction. Experimental evidence accumulated over rather more than a century is set out and discussed. It supports the view that, at the beginning of the 21st century, there are excellent grounds for believing that the receptors in the extraocular muscles are indeed proprioceptors, that is to say that the signals that they send into the brain are used to provide information about the position and movement of the eye in the orbit. It seems that this information is important in the control of eye movements of at least some types, and in the determination by the brain of the direction of gaze and the relationship of the organism to its environment. In addition, signals from these receptors in the eye muscles are seen to be necessary for the development of normal mechanisms of visual analysis in the mammalian visual cortex and for both the development and maintenance of normal visuomotor behaviour. Man is among those vertebrates to whose brains eye muscle proprioceptive signals provide information apparently used in normal sensorimotor functions; these include various aspects of perception, and of the control of eye movement. It is possible that abnormalities of the eye muscle proprioceptors and their signals may play a part in the genesis of some types of human squint (strabismus); conversely studies of patients with squint in the course of their surgical or pharmacological treatment have yielded much interesting evidence about the central actions of the proprioceptive signals from the extraocular muscles. The results of experiments on the eye have played a large part in the historical controversy, now in at least its third century, about the origin of signals that inform the brain about movement of parts of the body. Some of these results, and more of the interpretations of them, now need to be critically re-examined. The re-examination in the light of recent experiments that is presented here does not ...

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Section: Do Extraocular Muscle Afferent Signals Project To the Superimentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: (I) E¡ects On Gain and Phasementioning

confidence: 99%