Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Three Dimensional Vestibular Ocular Reflex Testing Using a Six Degrees of Freedom Motion Platform
Published on: May 23, 2013
Latent nystagmus: vestibular nystagmus with a twist
Michael C Brodsky1, Ronald J Tusa
1Departments of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA.
Background:
Latent nystagmus is a horizontal binocular oscillation that is evoked by unequal visual input to the 2 eyes. It develops primarily in humans with congenital esotropia.
Objective:
To investigate the interrelationship between latent and peripheral vestibular nystagmus and their corollary neuroanatomical pathways.
Methods:
Examination of subcortical neuroanatomical pathways producing latent nystagmus and review of the neurophysiological mechanisms by which they become activated in congenital esotropia.
Results:
The vestibular nucleus presides over motion input from the eyes and labyrinths. Latent nystagmus corresponds to the optokinetic component of ocular rotation that is driven monocularly by nasal optic flow during a turning movement of the body in lateral-eyed animals. Congenital esotropia alters visual pathway development from the visual cortex to subcortical centers that project to the vestibular nucleus, allowing this primitive subcortical motion detection system to generate latent nystagmus under conditions of monocular fixation.
Conclusions:
Latent nystagmus is the ocular counterpart of peripheral vestibular nystagmus. Its clinical expression in humans proclaims the evolutionary function of the eyes as sensory balance organs.
More Related Videos
05:02Using Unidirectional Rotations to Improve Vestibular System Asymmetry in Patients with Vestibular Dysfunction
Published on: August 30, 2019
07:24Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane
Published on: August 22, 2025
Related Concept Videos
Equilibrium and Balance
The Vestibular System
Gyroscope: Precession
Angle of Twist - Elastic Range
Angle of Twist: Problem Solving
Rotational Motion about a Fixed Axis