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How We Look: Studies Of Oculomotor-System Neural Connections, Ronald S. Remmel, Robert D. Skinner

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

The neural connections of the reticular formation (RF) with the vestibular nuclei (8V) and the ascending medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) were studied, because many neurons in these structures carry eye-movement and head-movement (vestibular) signals and are only one or two synaptic connections removed from eye motorneurons. We used stimulating electrodes placed in specific brainstem structures and a single-neuron recording microelectrode in anesthetized or decerebrate cats. Connections were determined when the neurons were excited either forwards (orthodromically) or backwards (antidromically) by a shock. Four classes of neurons were studied. One neuronal class in the pontine RF projects axons into the ascending …