Skew deviation of the eyes in normal human subjects induced by semicircular canal stimulation

Computerised video-oculography and scleral search coils were used to record the horizontal, vertical and torsional binocular eye movements of human subjects exposed to roll oscillation at 0.4 Hz about earth-horizontal and earth-vertical naso-occipital axes in darkness. The stimuli provoked a dominant torsional ('ocular counter-rolling') response with a ratio of peak slow phase eye velocity to stimulus velocity which was not significantly different for earth-horizontal (0.39, SD 0.08) or earth-vertical axis orientations (0.40, SD 0.08). For all conditions the responses also had a head-vertical component which was disconjugate ('skew deviation'). The cumulative, vertical, slow phase divergence was 5.8 degrees, SD 1.3 degrees, about upright and 4.3 degrees, SD 0.6 degrees, when supine. This is the first demonstration that dynamic roll stimuli provoke a skew deviation in normal human subjects. At the frequency tested, the skew was driven by vertical semicircular canal stimulation.