Compensatory eye movement and gaze fixation upon passive head- and body rotation and active head rotation

To detect differences in compensatory eye movement and gaze fixation, normal subjects and patients with bilateral loss of labyrinthine functions were subjected to passive head-and-body rotation and performed active head rotation. In normal subjects, there was no difference between passive and active rotation with respect to compensatory eye movement in the dark and spatial gaze fixation; on the other hand, the ability to gaze fixedly on a head-fixed target was better during passive than active rotation. In our patients, the findings obtained upon passive rotation resembled those already reported for active rotation, indicating that observing compensatory eye movements and gaze fixation during passive rotation is useful in the detection of disorders of the vestibulo-ocular reflex.