{"doi":"10.3389/fncel.2021.799752","title":"Loss of α-9 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Subunit Predominantly Results in Impaired Postural Stability Rather Than Gaze Stability","abstract":"The functional role of the mammalian efferent vestibular system (EVS) is not fully understood. One proposal is that the mammalian EVS plays a role in the long-term calibration of central vestibular pathways, for example during development. Here to test this possibility, we studied vestibular function in mice lacking a functional α9 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) gene family, which mediates efferent activation of the vestibular periphery. We focused on an α9 (-/-) model with a deletion in exons 1 and 2. First, we quantified gaze stability by testing vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR, 0.2-3 Hz) responses of both α9 (-/-) mouse models in dark and light conditions. VOR gains and phases were comparable for both α9 (-/-) mutants and wild-type controls. Second, we confirmed the lack of an effect from the α9 (-/-) mutation on central visuo-motor pathways/eye movement pathways via analyses of the optokinetic reflex (OKR) and quick phases of the VOR. We found no differences between α9 (-/-) mutants and wild-type controls. Third and finally, we investigated postural abilities during instrumented rotarod and balance beam tasks. Head movements were quantified using a 6D microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) module fixed to the mouse's head. Compared to wild-type controls, we found head movements were strikingly altered in α9 (-/-) mice, most notably in the pitch axis. We confirmed these later results in another α9 (-/-) model, with a deletion in the exon 4 region. Overall, we conclude that the absence of the α9 subunit of nAChRs predominately results in an impairment of posture rather than gaze.","journal":"Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience","year":2022,"id":266978,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9616,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":896911,"name":"Barbara J. Morley","orcid":"0000-0001-5268-8845","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":279456,"name":"Kathleen E. Cullen","orcid":"0000-0002-9348-0933","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":279452,"name":"Hui Ho Vanessa Chang","orcid":"0009-0005-9924-6143","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":56,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:27:02.050512Z","pmid":"35095424","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}