The distinctive central utricular projections in the herring

The utriculus of the inner ear of clupeid fishes comprises three maculae, each separately innervated. The three nerves were labelled with horseradish peroxidase in the herring and were found to project ipsilaterally to the cerebellum and octavus area and bilaterally to the lateralis zone of the brainstem. The anterior macular nerve terminates dorsally in the octavus area and exclusively in a rostral portion of the anterior octavus nucleus, whereas the middle and posterior macular nerves end ventrally in the octavus area and in the reticular formation. Large middle macular fibers synapse on the Mauthner-cell lateral dendrite.