Derek Michael Miller, Asmita Joshi, Emmanuel T Kambouroglos, Isaiah C Engstrom, John P Bielanin, Samuel Robert Wittman, Andrew A McCall, Susan M Barman, Bill J Yates
The vestibular system contributes to regulating sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure. Initial studies in decerebrate animals showed that neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) respond to small-amplitude (<10º) rotations of the body, as in other brain areas that process vestibular signals, although such movements do not affect blood distribution in the body. However, a subsequent experiment in conscious animals showed that few RVLM neurons respond to small-amplitude movements. This study tested the hypothesis that RVLM neurons in conscious animals respond to signals from the vestibular otolith organs elicited by large-amplitude static tilts...
January 15, 2020: American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology