Adaptive Changes in Gain of the Vestibulospinal Reflex During Sustained Neck-Vestibular Stimulation

Both labyrinth and neck inputs exert a prominent influence on postural mechanisms involving the limb musculature. In particular, rotation of the whole animal on one side, leading to stimulation of labyrinth receptors, induces a contraction not only of the limb extensors of that side, thus stabilizing posture of the limbs during head rotation, but also of the dorsal neck extensors of the opposite side, thus counteracting the head displacement (Schor and Miller, 1981). This righting of the head would then lead to stimulation of neck receptors, which contributes synergistically to the labyrinth-induced contraction of the limb extensors to maintain the support of the body over the limbs during animal tilt (Lindsay, Roberts and Rosenberg, 1976).