This award will support a cooperative research project between Dr. Harvey Reisine, Department of Neurology, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and Drs. Volker Henn, Urs Schwarz, and Walter Waespe, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. The general objective of the research is to elucidate brainstem neuronal mechanisms underlying reflexive eye movements in response to passive head rotation (i.e. the vestibulo-ocular reflex) and/or visual stimulation in the form of illuminated full field motion (optokinetic nystagmus or optokinetic after-nystagmus). Electrical impulses of single neurons in the vestibular nuclear complexes of alert, trained rhesus monkeys will be recorded during a paradigm designed to activate selectively classes of neurons involved in various aspects of vestibular and eye movement control, and to measure certain dynamics of the reflexive behaviors. Neuronal responses will be analyzed in relation to parameters of eye movement and stimulation, and in terms of current models of vestibulo-ocular and optokinetic behavior. The research is aimed at providing quantitative answers to questions arising within the context of a generally accepted model of the visual-vestibular-oculomotor reflex, which has the purpose of maintaining a steady image on the retina. Standard electrophysiological techniques will be used, and the experimental phase of the work will be carried out in a Swiss laboratory with an international reputation for excellence. Results may facilitate an understanding of the complex neural mechanisms associated with eye-head coordination during normal orienting, and establish a neural basis for motion perception. Dr. Reisine is an accomplished neuroscientist. The Swiss scientists with whom he will collaborate have outstanding reputations and experimental facilities. In addition to furthering the research aims of this project, the cooperating scientists hope that this joint effort will contribute to increased collaboration between their respective research groups by introducing common data acquisition, analysis, transfer, and storage mechanisms in the two laboratories.
