title: The efferent control of the organs of balance and equilibrium in the toadfish, Opsanus tau.
abstract: All vertebrates are endowed with a vestibular efferent system (EVS) consisting of somata within the central nervous system with long axons exiting the brain to innervate the labyrinth. Behaviorally relevant stimuli related to feeding and/or aggressive behaviors and conditions leading to enhanced attentional states or alerting activate the EVS. Increased EVS activity modifies the resting rate and response dynamics to motion of vestibular afferents. This modification is nonuniform across the fiber spectrum of the semicircular canals, for example, affecting the more-sensitive, low-spontaneous-activity cells more profoundly than their less-sensitive counterparts. The cellular bases for EVS effects are excitatory axoaxonic synapses upon primary afferents and axosomatic inhibitory synapses upon hair cells.
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Highstein
mesh_terms: D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology*; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase; D008297:Male; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D013550:Swimming; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase