Oculomotor (N III) motoneurons can innervate the superior oblique muscle of Xenopus after larval trochlear (N IV) nerve surgery.

The position of motoneurons which reinnervate the superior oblique muscle (SOM), normally exclusively innervated by contralateral trochlear motoneurons, was studied in Xenopus using retrograde tracing techniques. The trochlear nerve was cut at its decussation in 49 larvae of different ages and, after subsequent regeneration, the total number of trochlear motoneurons was found to be reduced to about 50% of the controls. In contrast, the number of ipsilateral trochlear motoneurons was increased. Cutting the trochlear nerve at later stages may result in absence of this nerve. In some animals the SOM was innervated either by superior rectus or, more frequently, by inferior oblique motoneurons alone; the latter is known to act predominantly as an antagonist of the SOM.