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Clinical and Pathological Study

ROBERT A. DAVIDOFF, MD; ADAM ATKIN, BS; PAUL J. ANDERSON, MD; MORRIS B. BENDER, MD

Arch Neurol. 1966;14(1):73-81.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

OPTOKINETIC nystagmus (OKN) was introduced as a clinical tool by Barany¹ in 1921, but in spite of intensive study and investigation, knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon and the anatomic substrates involved in its production is incomplete. An "optokinetic center" has been assumed to exist mainly on the basis of analysis of optokinetic dysfunction in patients with lesions more or less well localized on clinical grounds. This hypothesis, while consistent with classical anatomic conjecture, has not proved fruitful in understanding the phenomenon. Witness the fact that little agreement has been reached regarding the location of the so-called "center."^2-5

Although it is generally agreed that disturbances of optokinetic nystagmus are frequent in patients with intracranial pathology, the clinical value of optokinetic testing has been disputed. While some authors have insisted that a unilateral defect in OKN is virtually diagnostic of a parietal lobe lesion,^4,6 others have taken . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
NEW YORK

From the Department of Neurology and Division of Neuropathology, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 28, 1965; accepted Sept 13.

Reprint requests to The Mt. Sinai Hospital, 11 E 100th St, New York, NY 10029 (Dr. Bender).

Almost one half of the patients were also tested at the bedside by means of a standard one-half inch wide tape measure with black inch markings. Since speed and uni-formity of movement could not be controlled, we did not include these data in our results. It should be noted that in general, the nystagmus induced by tape conformed to that induced by the rotating cylinder.

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