A Surface Recorded Vestibular Evoked Response To Acceleration In Cats

Vestibular evoked responses to repetitive acceleration stimuli were recorded by skin electrodes in cats using filtering and averaging techniques. The response is made up of six—eight waves during the first 10 msec following the stimulus. Longer latency myogenic responses had large amplitude and disappeared following the paralysis of the animals. The neurogenic waves disappeared after the destruction of both inner ears or the excision of both eighth nerves and following death. Destruction of the inner ear, or excision of the VIIIth nerve on one side leads to response patterns of excitation vs. inhibition when appropriate excitatory and inhibitory acceleration stimuli are applied. The possible generators of the evoked responses are discussed in the light of the physiology of the vestibular pathways, and the results of the present experiments suggest that the generators of the first and second waves are the vestibular nerve and vestibular nucleus respectively. In addition, the vestibular evoked response seemed to be more sensitive to ischemia of the brain than the auditory brainstem evoked response and may therefore reflect better changes in brain function.