Mossy fibres from the nucleus of the basal optic root project to the vestibular and cerebellar nuclei in pigeons.

The nucleus of the basal optic root in pigeons is a retinal recipient structure involved in gaze stabilization and it projects to folium IXc,d of the vestibulocerebellum as mossy fibres. In this study, we injected the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextran amine into the nucleus of the basal optic root of three pigeons. We found that these mossy fibres gave off collaterals that terminated in the vestibular and cerebellar nuclei. The consequences for oculomotor and collimotor function are discussed.