Alexander's Law Revisited

Abstract

Alexander's Law states that the slow-phase velocity of the nystagmus caused by unilateral vestibular lesion increases with gaze in the beat direction. Two studies have shown that this gaze effect is generalized to the nystagmus caused by unilateral cold water irrigation. This indicates that the gaze effect is not the result of central changes associated with a peripheral lesion but rather because of unilateral vestibular peripheral inhibition. In this study, we show that there is a similar gaze effect on the nystagmus produced by unilateral warm water ear irrigation. Furthermore, we examined the two hypotheses of Alexander's Law proposed in the two studies. One hypothesis is based on the gaze-dependent modulation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) response to unbalanced canal input. The other hypothesis, however, is based on the leaky neural integrator caused by unilateral vestibular peripheral inhibition. These two hypotheses predict the same gaze effect on the nystagmus produced by cold water irrigation, but opposite gaze effects on the nystagmus produced by warm water irrigation. Our results support the first hypothesis and suggest that the second hypothesis needs to be modified.