Optokinetic Suppression of Aberrant Vestibular Reactions: An Observation

Abstract

It has long been known that optokinetic nystagmus may be modified by vestibular inputs. We have suppressed an aberrant vestibular response and associated gastrointestinal sensations by use of an optokinetic stimulus simultaneous to the positional stimulus in a patient with paroxysmal positional vertigo. This single subject study utilized several optokinetic conditions, and patterned its stimulus presentations to control for visual fixation and vestibular habituation. Objective recordings of eye movements (ENG) were made simultaneously with subjective evaluation of “dizziness” on a simple magnitude estimation scale.