Eye hyperdeviation in mouse cerebellar mutants is comparable to the gravity-dependent component of human downbeat nystagmus

Abstract: Humans with cerebellar degeneration commonly exhibit downbeat nystagmus (DBN). DBN has gravity-independent and -dependent components, and the latter has been proposed to reflect hyperactive tilt maculo-ocular reflexes (tilt-MOR). Mice with genetically determined cerebellar ataxia do not exhibit DBN, but they do exhibit tonic hyperdeviation of the eyes, which we have proposed to be the DBN equivalent. As such, the tilt-MOR might be predicted to be hyperactive in these mutant mice. We measured the tilt-MOR in 10 normal C57BL/6 mice and in 6 tottering , a mutant exhibiting ataxia and ocular motor abnormalities due to mutation of the P/Q calcium channel. Awake mice were placed in body orientations spanning 360° about the pitch axis. The absolute, equilibrium vertical angular deviations of one eye were measured using infrared videooculography. In both strains, eye elevation varied quasi-sinusoidally with tilt angle in the range of 90° nose-up to 90° nose-down. Beyond this range the eye returned to a neutral position. Deviation over ±30° of tilt was an approximately linear function of the projection of the gravity vector into the animal's horizontal plane, and can thus be summarized by its slope (sensitivity). Sensitivity measured 14.9°/g for C57BL/6 and 20.3°/g for tottering , a statistically significant difference. Thus the pitch otolithic reflex of the ataxic mutants is hyperactive relative to controls and could explain tonic hyperdeviation of the eyes, consistent with the idea that the tonic hyperdeviation is analogous to DBN.