Nystagmus

News has been slow for the past week or so, and I haven't really found much in terms of new strides made in research, but I have been coming across several articles related to nystagmus, which is definitely related to my research. I thought it would be appropriate, then, to talk a little about what nystagmus is, and the impacts it has.

Nystagmus is, in a nutshell, involuntary eye movements that can be related to a number of things, including the vestibulo-ocular reflex and certain pathological conditions. It is naturally-occurring and differs from traditional saccadic movements in that it involves both rapid, saccadic movements in addition to smooth-pursuit movements, which are self-explanatory. Because nystagmus is used to aid in visual tracking and imaging, intoxication via alcohol inhibits it, and one widely-used sobriety test today is a test of nystagmus movements.

The reason this keeps making the news, though, is because nystagmus can be pathological, and in doing so disrupt vision abilities. In its pathological form, nystagmus is probably best described as the involuntary twitching and movement of the eye, and, as cited above, can be caused by alcohol, in addition to problems with the nervous system.

As such, I think an interesting application of nystamus would be to link it to different diseases and possibly use it as a barometer for diseases or conditions that a person may have. Many diseases currently exhibit nystagmus as a side-effect, and this fact could be used to aid in diagnosing certain diseases.

I'll keep on the lookout for anything related to nystagmus, and, of course, the optokinetic and vestibulo-ocular reflexes themselves.