title: Spontaneous and positional nystagmus in healthy persons demonstrated only by electronystagmography: physiological spontaneous nystagmus or "functional scar"?
abstract: We wanted to ascertain whether a physiological horizontal vestibular spontaneous nystagmus is existent, or whether the spontaneous and positional nystagmus seen in clinically healthy persons in the electronystagmogram -- when fixation had been excluded completely -- was always the result of earlier damages to the vestibular system (Jatho). For this purpose we tried to detect a spontaneous and positional nystagmus in 102 healthy persons from 6 age groups (17 each) between 11 and 70 years of age. When the ENG was registered with open eyes in darkness, 63 out of the 102 test persons had a horizontal spontaneous or positional nystagmus, however, under the Frenzel glasses there was a nystagmus in only 2 out of these test persons. With open eyes in darkness, the frequency and intensity was the same in all age groups. With this, we believe to have proved that a physiological horizontal vestibular nystagmus does exist. We share Kornhuber's opinion that the examination with the Frenzel glasses in a dark room, together with the head shaking test and positional test, at the present time represents the best method for differentiating between physiological and pathological spontaneous nystagmus.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004584:Electronystagmography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*