@article{ref1,
title="Gaze-evoked Nystagmus induced by alcohol intoxication",
journal="Journal of physiology",
year="2016",
author="Romano, Fausto and Tarnutzer, Alexander A. and Straumann, Dominik and Ramat, Stefano and Bertolini, Giovanni",
volume="595",
number="6",
pages="2161-2173",
abstract="Gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN) is an ocular-motor finding commonly observed in cerebellar disease, characterized by increased centripetal eye-drift with centrifugal correcting saccades at eccentric gaze. With cerebellar degeneration being a rare and clinically heterogeneous disease, data from patients are limited. We hypothesized that a transient inhibition of cerebellar function by defined amounts of alcohol may provide a suitable model to study gaze-holding deficits in cerebellar disease. We recorded gaze-holding at varying horizontal eye positions in 15 healthy participants before and 30 min after alcohol intake required to reach 0.6‰ blood alcohol content (BAC). Changes in ocular-motor behavior were quantified measuring eye-drift velocity as a continuous function of gaze eccentricity over a large range (±40°) of horizontal gaze angles and characterized using a 2-parameters tangent model. The effect of alcohol on gaze stability was assessed analyzing: 1) overall effects on the gaze-holding system, 2) specific effects on each eye, 3) differences between gaze angles in the temporal and nasal hemifields. For all subjects, alcohol consumption induced gaze instability, causing a two-fold increase (2.21 [0.55], median [median absolute deviation, MAD]; P = 0.002) of eye-drift velocity at all eccentricities. <br><br>RESULTS were confirmed analyzing independently each eye and hemifield. The alcohol-induced transient global deficit in gaze-holding matched the pattern previously described in patients with late-onset cerebellar degeneration. Controlled intake of alcohol seems a suitable disease model to study cerebellar GEN. With alcohol resulting in global cerebellar hypofunction, we hypothesize that patients matching the gaze-holding behavior observed here suffered from diffuse deficits in the gaze-holding system as well. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.<br><br>This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-3751",
doi="10.1113/JP273204",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP273204"
}