The effect of lesions of the dorsal cap of the inferior olive on the vestibulo-ocular and optokinetic systems of the cat.

The gain (eye velocity/head velocity) of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) of cats was measured in the dark and light for sinusoidal head oscillations at 0.05 and 1.2 Hz with peak velocity of about 30 deg/sec. Animals wore visual reversing prisms chronically and were also subjected to forced oscillation in the light at 0.05 Hz for 2 h per day. Such experience produced adaptive reduction in VOR gain in the dark from 0.85 to 0.10 within about 4 days; qualitatively similar effects were observed at 1.2 Hz. In 4 cats, the dorsal cap of the inferior olive was located electrophysiologically by its responses to visual motion, and bilateral electrolytic lesions were made in or near this structure. The location of lesions was subsequently identified by histology. After lesions, 3 cats were unable to make adaptive changes in VOR gain when confronted with the same reversing prism paradigm; the fourth exhibited appreciable retardation of adaptation. These results imply that the dorsal cap is essential for plastic adaptation of the VOR. However, all cats retained the ability to use reversed vision to reduce VOR gain in the light after lesions. Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) and optokinetic after nystagmus (OKAN) were measured in a striped optokinetic drum, before and after dorsal cap lesions, at drum velocities of 20 and 40 deg/sec. Lesions of the dorsal cap in 4 cats did not impair either OKN or OKAN. This result indicates that the climbing fiber system reaching the flocculus from the inferior olive is not essential for such optokinetic movements.