Vertical visual-vestibular interaction in normal human subjects.

Previous studies have described asymmetrical vertical eye movements when normal human subjects were rotated about a vertical inter-aural axis (with head rolled 90 degrees). We measured vertical eye movements induced by visual, vestibular and visual-vestibular stimuli with a magnetic scleral search coil technique while 10 normal subjects sat upright in a chair designed to rotate about the horizontal inter-aural axis at frequencies and amplitudes of natural head movements. Asymmetries in the gain of upward and downward pursuit and fixation-suppression of the VOR were found in individual subjects. However, there was no significant difference (p greater than 0.05) between the mean gain of up and down slow eye movements induced by vestibular, visual or visual-vestibular stimulation in the group of normal subjects. Systematic up-down asymmetries in vertical eye movements previously observed with testing about the vertical inter-aural axis were probably due to bias introduced by otolith stimulation and/or electro-oculographic eyelid artifact.