• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.79-88
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• 1988

The effect of cervical proprioceptors on the control of eye movement and body posture was examined in unanesthetized labyrinthine intact and bilateral labyrinthectomized cats. Cervico-ocular reflex(COR) was elicited by stimulation of the cervical proprioceptors by means of sinusoidal rotation of head or body in the darkness. The following results were obtained: 1) In labyrinthine intact cats, sinusoidal rotation of the whole body elicited compensatory eye movement(vestibulo-ocular reflex: VOR); the direction of eye movement was opposite to the direction of head rotation. 2) Anticompensatory eye movement was observed by sinusoidal rotation of the body with head fixed in labyrinthine intact cats; the direction of eye movement was the same as the direction of head rotation. 3) Compensatory eye movement was observed by sinusoidal rotation of the head with body fixed or sinusoidal rotation of the body with head fixed in both acute and chronic bilateral labyrinthectomized cats. These results suggest that the cervical proprioceptors are important in the control of ocular movement and posture in the bilateral labyrintectomized cats, although they are questionable in labyrinthine intact cats.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 1990

The role of cervical proprioceptors in the control of body posture was studied in bilaterally labyrinth-ectomized, decerebrate cats. The animals were suspended on hip pins with the neck extended horizontally. With this placement the EMG activities of extensor and flexor muscles of the upper extremities were observed by means of sinusoidal head rotator. The rotator can induce two kinds of neck movement: The one is 'pitch' which describes a rotatory neck motion to transverse axis of the body and mainly occurs at skull-C1 (atlantooccipital) joint and the other is 'roll', side-to-side relation of the neck to longitudinal axis, whose center is C1-C2 (atlanto-axial) joint. The following results were obtained. 1) Responses of EMG activity were closely dependent on the rotatory range of the neck. And the EMG activity was not changed during sustained neck torsion, eliciting a typical tonic neck reflex. 2) On pitching movement, the head-up rotation produced the excitation of bilateral triceps muscles, whereas the head-down rotation produced the inhibition. And the response of bilateral biceps muscles was the opposite to that of triceps. 3) On rolling movement, the side-up rotation of the head produced the excitation of ipsilateral triceps muscles and the inhibition of contralateral ones. And the response of biceps muscles was the opposite to that of triceps. 4) The minimum requirement of motion to evoke EMG activities in the upper extremities was $3.2^{\circ}{\sim}12.5^{\circ}$. These results have shown that the cervical proprioceptors produce tonic discharge on the upper brachial muscles, regulate the EMG activities of those muscles, and are very sensitive to neck rotation. And it can be stated that the cervical proprioceptors may play an important role in the control of body posture and movement.