The dynamics of vertical eye movements in normal human subjects

We studied the dynamics of horizontal and vertical slow eye movements (vestibular, optokinetic, pursuit, and visual-vestibular) in 10 normal human subjects. Several differences between horizontal and vertical eye movements were found. The time constant (time required for the slow-phase eye velocity to decay to 37% of the peak value) of vertical postrotatory nystagmus (PRN) was, on average, 50% as long as the time constant of horizontal PRN; the mean phase lead of per-rotatory nystagmus during low-frequency sinusoidal rotation in the vertical plane was approximately twice the mean phase lead of per-rotatory nystagmus at the same frequency in the horizontal plane. Vertical optokinetic after-nystagmus (OKAN) was minimal compared to horizontal OKAN. Asymmetries in the dynamics of vertical eye movements were also noted. The mean time constant of PRN with upward slow phases was consistently longer than the mean time constant of PRN with downward slow phases and vertical OKAN only occurred when the optokinetic stimulus moved upward. Upward pursuit was better than downward pursuit and upward slow phases of vestibular nystagmus were poorly inhibited with fixation while downward slow phases were normally inhibited.