Vestibular System and Cerebellum Flashcards
What are the 3 functions of the vestibular system?
- Mediate awareness of movement
- Adjust posture relative to position of head
- Generate eye movements that compensate for head movements
What afferents and efferents mediate our awareness of movement in the vestibular system.
–Afferents from CN VIII
–Efferents to the thalamus, to cortex
What efferents and afferents are involved in the vestibular system’s capacity to adjust posture relative to position of the head?
–Afferents from CN VIII
–Efferents to the cerebellum
What are the efferents and afferents that are responsible for the ability to generate eye movements that compensate for head movements?
–Afferents from CN VIII
–Efferents to reticular formation, cranial nerve nuclei controlling extraocular muscles
Inside the temporal bone, there is a bony/osseous labyrinth. What type of lymph is found here?
Perilymph
Within the bony labyrinth of the temporal bone is the membranous labyrinth which contains sensory organs bathed in what?
Describe the Na+ and K+ levels of this.
Endolymph
Has low Na+ and High K+
Meniere’s disease is characterised by vertigo, tinnitis and hearing loss. What is this caused by?
Defective circulation or absorption of endolymph
There are kinetic and static labyrinths, what is the kinetic labyrinth responsible for?
What are the organs of this labyrinth?
Responds to head movement, specifically angular velocity, movements like shaking head yes/no.
Semicircular canals, with ampullae and cristae
The static labyrinth responds to changes in head position and linear velocity.
What are two examples, of how this comes into play?
What are the associated organs?
Riding elevator and walking.
Vestibule: Utricle, saccule, maculae
What is the orientation of the kinetic labyrinth ducts?
Each side of the head has 3 paired semicircular canals - orthogonal orientation implies pairing.
Each lateral duct works in concert with the opposite lateral duct.
Superior duct works in concert with posterior duct on contralateral side.
Superior, lateral and posterior ducts work in y, x and z directions.
What is the relative position of ampullae in regards to the semicircular canals and the utricle?
Ampullae are tethered to the end of each of their respective semicircular canals by vestibular ganglions. Ampullae fall between semicircular canals and the utricle. See slide 10, Vestibular system lecture for visualization.
What are the cristae? What important aspect of the vestibular system do they contain?
A crista is a ridge of tissue that sits in the ampulla (enlargement of semicircular canal before the utricle). Cristae contain sensory hair cells and support cells.
What is a cupula? How does it relate to crista, hair cells, and ampulla?
A cupula is a gelatinous mass holding the cilia of the hair cells of the crista. The cupula sits in the ampulla of the semicircular cells.
Hair cells sit the crista, and synapse on the nerve. Nerve crosses utricle back to ganglion.
The crista sits on the cupula.
The cupula sits in the ampulla.
The ampulla sits in an enlargement of the semicircular canals, between the canals and the utricle.
What kinds of cilia do vestibular hair cells contain? How are they arranged?
All vestibular hair cells contain:
- Stereocilia - many
- Kinocilium
Stereocilia are arranged shortest to tallest, leading up to the kinocilium, which is the tallest cilia.
All kinocilia in a given crista are arranged in the same direction.
What does deflection of cilia in hair cells towards the kinocilium create? Away from the kinocilium? How does this work?
Deflection of the stereocilia towards the kinocilium creates a depolarization. Deflection of the stereocilia away from the kinocilium creates a hyperpolarization.
Mechanism works via stereocilia being linked to each other and the kinocilium with tip links. Tip link will have a K+ ion channel, and will be pulled open with deflection of stereocilia towards kinocilium.
Which cilia on hair cells synapses on the local vestibular nerve fiber?
Only the kinocilium synapses onto the nerve fiber. Nerve fibers eventually feed back onto vestibular ganglion.
What is the name for the type of transduction that hair cells do?
Mechanotransduction
How does the extracellular environment around hair cells allow them to create a tip-linked depolarization?
Depolarization of hair cells via tip links is dependent upon an influx of K+.
Hair cells are surrounded by endolymph, which is high in K+ and low in Na+. Opening of ion channels via tip links allows K+ to flow into cell, creating a depolarization.
How does angular velocity affect the endolymph, cupula, and stereocilia?
Angular movement of the head shifts endolymph in semicircular canals
Pressure from endolymph moves the cupula, as they are the same density.
Overall, results in movement and stimulation of stereocilia.
How do stereocilia deflect in response to angular velocity? What affects movement of endolymph itself (think general physics)?
Stereocilia generally deflect in the opposite direction of vector of velocity.
This is due to inertia.
What molecules move during the transduction process in inner ear hair cells?
Cupola deflection happens
Stereocilia and kinocilium all tilt in same direction
High K+ in endolymph causes influx (remember, typical AP is due to Na+ influx)
Ca++ influx happens, causes release of NT glutamate
Glutamate released from hair cells onto vestibular nerve fiber
Ribbon synapses are sued for massive release
What is so special about ribbon synapses? Where are they?
Ribbon synapses lie between hair cells and vestibular nerve fibers.
Ribbon synapses don’t need an AP (action potential) to fire. Instead, they release NT in proportion to the amount of glu released by the hair cell. Ribbon synapses are capable of responding to massive amounts of glu.
How is cilia movement facilitated by cupular displacement in different cristae in the kinetic labyrinths?
Kinetic Labyrinths:
Lateral cristae - cupular displacement towards utricle
Superior and posterior cristae - cupular displacement away from the utricle
What can activate the medial longitudinal fasciculus?
MLF is activated by lateral movement of the head
Which way do eyes move with the vestibular ocular reflex (VOR)?
Eyes move opposite of head movement, i.e. head moves right and eyes move left.
VOR can also affect gaze in up/down direction, using different cranial nuclei and extra-ocular muscles (EOmm).
What CN ganglion provides input into the MLF and VOR? What kind of neurons are in this ganglion?
Pseudounipolar neurons in vestibular ganglion, vestibular part of CN VIII
What is the path of the VOR in regards to eye movements with lateral movement? (Remember, path will differ with different head movements.)
Input into pseudounipolar neurons in vestibular ganglion
First synapse onto vestibular nuclei
Vestibular nuclei decussates and fires on PPRF (ParaPontine Reticular Formation)
PPRF will send a neuron to fire on ipsilateral abducens nuclei (CN VI)
- ipsi lateral rectus mm engaged
PPRF will send another neuron that immediately decussates and travels up to contralateral oculomotor nucleus (CN III) via the MLF
- contralateral medial rectus mm engaged
What will happen with a lesion to the left abducens nucleus?
Left eye won’t turn forward and might drift medially when head is turned to the right
What also travels through the MLF?
Medial vestibulospinal pathway
Medial carries information from medial vestibular nuclei for head position stability to bilateral mm
What EOmm does CN III innervate?
Superior rectus
Inferior rectus
Medial rectus
Inferior oblique
What EOmm does trochlear nerve innervate?
Superior oblique
What EOmm does abducens innervate?
Lateral rectus
What does a lesion to CN III result in?
Eye cannot move up, down, and up & out
What does a lesion in CN IV result in?
Eye can’t move down and out
What does a lesion in CN VI result in?
Eye cannot move laterally
What connects the nuclei for all the EOmm together?
MLF - connects CN nuclei for III, IV and VI
What clinical test will test the vestibulo-ocular reflex? How does it work? What is the name for the eye movements that result
Caloric reflex test - creates caloric nystagmus
Cold water into ear canal will cause eyes to move towards stimulus
Warm water into ear canal will cause eyes to move away from stimulus
Test works by utilizing convection/heat transfer to change currents of the endolymph in semicircular canals, which will cause different stimuli to be sent to the vestibular ganglion.