Vestibular responses to linear acceleration are absent in otoconia-deficient C57BL/6JEi-het mice.
Vestibular evoked potentials (VsEPs) were measured in normal mice and in mice homozygous for the head tilt mutation (het/het, abbr. het). The het mice lack otoconia, the inertial mass critical for natural stimulation of inner ear gravity receptors. Our findings demonstrate that vestibular neural responses to pulsed linear acceleration are absent in het mice.


RESULTS
(1) confirm that adequate sensory stimuli fail to activate gravity receptors in the het model; and (2) serve as definitive evidence that far-field vestibular responses to pulsed linear acceleration depend critically on otolith end organs. The C57BL/6JEi-het mouse may be an excellent model of gravity receptor sensory deprivation.
Jones
S M
SM
Department of Surgery/ENT, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia 65212, USA.
Erway
L C
LC
Bergstrom
R A
RA
Schimenti
J C
JC
Jones
T A
TA
D000054:Acceleration; D000818:Animals; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D009154:Mutation; D010037:Otolithic Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*