title: Impaired perception of gravity leads to altered head direction signals: what can we learn from vestibular-deficient mice?
abstract: Many mutant mouse strains display pathological behaviors, such as head tilts, head bobbing, or circling and waltzing, strongly suggesting that their vestibular system is impaired. Recently, Yoder and Taube studied head direction signals in tilted mutant mice, which have an impaired gravitation sensitivity in the vestibular periphery. Here we summarize their findings and discuss a caveat related to the general use of mutant mouse strains in systems physiology.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neurobiologie des Réseaux Sensorimoteurs, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 7060, Université Paris Descartes, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75270 Paris, Cédex 06, France. mathieu.beraneck@parisdescartes.fr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beraneck
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Lambert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018466:Gravity Sensing / Q000502:physiology*; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains / Q000502:physiology; D009039:Motion Perception; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology