Journal
JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 27, Issue 3, Pages 437-451Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10827-009-0156-4
Keywords
Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR); Mathematical modeling; Gain fields; Reflex modulation; Sensory integration; Disconjugate VOR; Vergence
Funding
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research Funding Source: Medline
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Gain modulation is believed to be a common integration mechanism employed by neurons to combine information from various sources. Although gain fields have been shown to exist in some cortical and subcortical areas of the brain, their existence has not been explored in the brainstem. In the present modeling study, we develop a physiologically relevant simplified model for the angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) to show that gain modulation could also be the underlying mechanism that modifies VOR function with sensorimotor context (i.e. concurrent eye positions and stimulus intensity). The resulting nonlinear model is further extended to generate both slow and quick phases of the VOR. Through simulation of the hybrid nonlinear model we show that disconjugate eye movements during the VOR are an inevitable consequence of the existence of such gain fields in the bilateral VOR pathway. Finally, we will explore the properties of the predicted disconjugate component. We will demonstrate that the apparent phase characteristics of the disconjugate response vary with the concurrent conjugate component.
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