Role of the Cerebellar Flocculus Region in the Coordination of Eye and Head Movements During Gaze Pursuit

Abstract

The contribution of the flocculus region of the cerebellum to horizontal gaze pursuit was studied in squirrel monkeys. When the head was free to move, the monkeys pursued targets with a combination of smooth eye and head movements; with the majority of the gaze velocity produced by smooth tracking head movements. In the accompanying study we reported that the flocculus region was necessary for cancellation of the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) evoked by passive whole body rotation. The question addressed in this study was whether the flocculus region of the cerebellum also plays a role in canceling the VOR produced by active head movements during gaze pursuit. The firing behavior of 121 Purkinje (Pk) cells that were sensitive to horizontal smooth pursuit eye movements was studied. The sample included 66 eye velocity Pk cells and 55 gaze velocity Pk cells. All of the cells remained sensitive to smooth pursuit eye movements during combined eye and head tracking. Eye velocity Pk cells were insensitive to smooth pursuit head movements. Gaze velocity Pk cells were nearly as sensitive to active smooth pursuit head movements as they were passive whole body rotation; but they were less than half as sensitive (≈43%) to smooth pursuit head movements as they were to smooth pursuit eye movements. Considered as a whole, the Pk cells in the flocculus region of the cerebellar cortex were <20% as sensitive to smooth pursuit head movements as they were to smooth pursuit eye movements, which suggests that this region does not produce signals sufficient to cancel the VOR during smooth head tracking. The comparative effect of injections of muscimol into the flocculus region on smooth pursuit eye and head movements was studied in two monkeys. Muscimol inactivation of the flocculus region profoundly affected smooth pursuit eye movements but had little effect on smooth pursuit head movements or on smooth tracking of visual targets when the head was free to move. We conclude that the signals produced by flocculus region Pk cells are neither necessary nor sufficient to cancel the VOR during gaze pursuit.