EYE-MOVEMENT DISORDERS

An enormous number of important clinical and experimental papers on eye movement disorders has been published during the last year, including the excellent review on the entire field by Leigh and Zee (In The Neurology of Eye Movements, 2nd ed. FA Davis Company, 1991). Particularly, our knowledge of cortical control of saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements has been enlarged by well-defined lesion studies, with paradigms being appropriate for the assessment of cortical function. Results largely confirmed current models based on primate experiments. Oculographic assessment of subclinical oculomotor symptoms contributed to early diagnosis of systemic diseases. Furthermore, case reports on circumscribed, neuroradiologically documented brainstem lesions have provided new insight in the functional neuroanatomy of the ocular motor nuclei and fascicles, and of supranuclear structures, such as the interstitial nucleus of Cajal and the neural pathways controlling the vertical and torsional vestibulo-ocular reflex and the contribution of the otoliths. A few interesting aspects of therapy were published, including elaborate studies on the adaptive and regenerative capacities of the ocular motor system.