title: Disconjugate eye movements.
abstract: To foveate targets in different depths, the movements of the two eyes must be disconjugate. Fine measurements of eye rotations about the three principal axes have demonstrated that disconjugate eye movements may appear not only in the horizontal, but also in the vertical and torsional directions. In the presence of visual targets, disconjugate eye movements are driven by the vergence system, but they may also appear during vestibular stimulation. Disconjugate eye movements are highly adaptable by visual disparities, but under normal condition the effects of adaptation only persist when one eye is covered. Finally, disorders of the brainstem and cerebellum may lead to abnormal disconjugate eye movements that are often specific for the topography of the lesion. This chapter reviews the literature on the phenomenology of disconjugate eye movements over the last 15 years.
authors.affiliation: Neurology Department, Zurich University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. dominik@neurol.unizh.ch
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Straumann
mesh_terms: D000221:Adaptation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology