[Neuroscience] Re: Q on vestibular system: Acceleration or velocity?

[Michael Olea]

Mathias wrote:

> Dear ng,
> 
> I'm looking for a reference about whether the vestibular system yields
> an acceleration and/or velocity signal (e.g. used for the head direction
> and place cell system). Googling for this I found a website...
>
http://paperairplane.mit.edu/16.423J/Space/SBE/neurovestibular/NeuroVestibular/2_Physiology/PhysSub3.html
> ... that claims the vestibular system outputs a velocity and not an
> acceleration signal "over the range of normal head movements".
> Unfortunately there is no reference and I'm not even certain about which
> species they talk.
> 
> Any reference on this topic would be highly appreciated,
>     Mathias

Anderson and Eliasmith's book "Neural Engineering: Computation,
Representation, and Dynamics in Neurobiological Systems", has a good
discussion and several references. You can find information about the book
here:

http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca/bookinfo.html

A paper available on-line:

Eliasmith, C., M. B. Westover, and C. H. Anderson (2002). A general
framework for neurobiological modeling: An application to the vestibular
system. Neurocomputing. 46: 1071-1076.

http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~celiasmi/Papers/otolith.cns2001.forpublish.3ce.pdf

This paper, of course, provides further references.

-- Michael