Affiliations: [a] Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada | [b] Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA | [c] Centre d'Etude de la Sensorimotricité, UMR 8194 CNRS – Université Paris Descartes, UFR Biomédicale des Saints-Pères, Paris, France
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Kathleen E. Cullen, Department of Physiology, 3655 Prom. Sir William Osler, room 1218, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada. Tel.: +1 514 398 5709; Fax: +1 514 398 8241; E-mail: Kathleen.cullen@mcgill.ca
Abstract: The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), which functions to stabilize gaze and ensure clear vision during everyday activities, shows impressive adaptation in response to environmental requirements. In particular, the VOR exhibits remarkable recovery following the loss of unilateral labyrinthine input as a result of injury or disease. The relative simplicity of the pathways that mediate the VOR, make it an excellent model system for understanding the changes (learning) that occur in the brain following peripheral vestibular loss to yield adaptive changes. This mini review considers the findings of behavioral, single unit recording and lesion studies of VOR compensation. Recent experiments have provided evidence that the brain makes use of multiple plasticity mechanisms (i.e., changes in peripheral as well as central processing) during the course of vestibular compensation to accomplish the sensory-motor transformations required to accurately guide behavior.
