Aim of this study was to determine sensitivity and specificity of the mastoid vibration test in patients who had suffered an attack of vestibular neuritis. Results were compared with the caloric test and two bedside tests of vestibular function (head shaking test and head thrust test). Results are reported in 28 patients who had a residual vestibular deficit 6 months after acute neuritis and in...

Optokinetic afternystagmus follows optokinetic nystagmus as an expression of the central velocity storage integrator discharge and its fast phase is beating in the same direction as the previous optokinetic nystagmus. We investigated the correlation between vestibulo-ocular reflex and optokinetic afternystagmus in normal subjects and in patients with bilateral vestibular disorders. The aim of t...

Background/aims: Past studies have explored some of the associations between particular motor and sensory characteristics and specific categories of non-neurological infantile nystagmus. The purpose of this case study is to extend this body of work significantly by describing the trends and associations found in a database of 224 subjects who have undergone extensive clinical and psychophysical...

A 16-year-old boy with rotatory positional vertigo and nausea, particularly when lying down, visited our clinic. Initially, we observed vertical/torsional (downward/leftward) nystagmus in the supine position, and it did not diminish. In the sitting position, nystagmus was not provoked. Neurological examinations were normal. We speculated that persistent torsional down-beating nystagmus was caus...

A teenage girl with a chronic large posterior fossa tumor had primary position right-beating nystagmus with a constant-velocity slow phase. Smooth pursuit was normal to the left but absent to the right. Vestibuloocular move­ ments were present in both directions. The findings are analogous to downbeat and upbeat nystagmus, in which unidirectional pursuit palsies have been postulated as the path...

Polygraphic recording is presented of the sleep pattern in a young male who developed nystagmus and oscillopsia associated with a remittent CNS demyelinating disease. The vestibular nystagmus observed during wakefulness disappeared during all stages of sleep, including rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Since vestibular nystagmus experimentally induced in wakefulness is also absent during all phas...

Nystagmus needs to be stimulated for healthy subjects, but in patients it can also be spontaneous. By recording spontaneous nystagmus it is possible to reveal underlying disorders of the semicircular canals of the inner ear. We developed a signal analysis technique for this purpose and tested it with 28 otoneurological patients who had disorders in their semicircular canals. Our test results su...

Direct current electronystagmographic recordings of spontaneous nystagmus, in the light, in darkness, and with eye closure were carried out on 34 patients with peripheral lesions of the vestibular system with a view to determining their specificity. In 60% of patients the responses were characterised by an enhancement of the nystagmus both with eye closure and in darkness. The remainder exhibit...