Clinical signs of visual-vestibular interaction

Visual suppression of vestibulo-ocular reflexes (induced vestibular nystagmus) differs between normal subjects and patients with various neurological disorders. Abnormalities of VOR suppression were associated consistently with abnormalities of the visual and/or vesitibular oculomotor reflexes and in particular with abnormal smooth pursuit eye movements in the direction of abnormal suppression. Absent VOR suppression in a gaze position of, and in the same direction as, a spontaneous nystagmus was found exclusively in patients with spontaneous nystagmus of central nervous system origin. Conversely, ability to suppress in these circumstances was found only in patients with spontaneous nystagmus of peripheral labyrinthine origin. Suppression of VOR was abnormal ipsilaterally in patients with unilateral cerebral hemisphere lesions and abnormal in both the horizontal and vertical planes in patients with basal ganglia lesions. Failure of VOR suppression in the absence of spontaneous nystagmus indicates a supratentorial lesion.