The major emphasis of this project has been on developing methods for analyzing oculomotor disorders in human subjects. Further development of the computerized system for stimulus presentation and eye movement recording has enabled us to present brief sets of visual tasks and collect data to evaluate each of the ocular motor subsystems. Additional work on the analysis programs has increased the sensitivity of these tests. A second phase of the project has been to develop a detailed data base of normal human responses to various stimuli. We have recently concentrated on smooth pursuit eye movements, which have not previously been well characterized. The computerized facility has allowed us to simulate an eye muscle weakness in normal subjects by optical means, and we found that subjects were able to alter the long latency pursuit response, but not the short latency one, to correct for the simulated weakness. These tests have been applied to a few patients with pursuit disorders and both short and long latency responses were abnormal. Studies on congenital nystagmus were completed after finding tht these patients often have an abnormality of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, and that some may use this poor vestibular response to help them improve acuity by head shaking. Other observations included: benefit of clonazepam in quieting a variety of types of nystagmus, continued analysis of horizontal saccadic abnormalities in all types of Gaucher's disease, and development of abducting mystagmus in multiple sclerosis patients as a result of adaptive changes after eye patching.
