Effects of walking and flash stimulation on click-evoked responses in cats.

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Abstract
The click-evoked response at several sites in the cat''s central classical auditory system (cochlear nucleus to cortex) and in the cerebellar vermis was studied during controlled walking of the cat and during novel flash stimulation. The acoustic control procedures used (earphones, sectioning of middle ear muscles in some cats, and elimination of data confounded by masking noise) resulted in a constant input to the auditory system. Both quiet walking by a cat as opposed to quiet resting and novel flash stimulation did not affect click-evoked responses from classical auditory system structures in cats with either sectioned or unsectioned middle ear muscles. Cerebellar vermis responses, however, were greatly attenuated during both walking and flash stimulation. Neither the muscular activity involved in walking nor the distraction afforded by a novel visual stimulus affects the click response in the classical auditory system, but both affect the cerebellar response to clicks.