VECTOR-ELECTRO-OCULOGRAPHY AND ITS CLINICAL APPLICATION*†

EYE movements are one of the important physiological phenomena which occur when some visual information is obtained. The examination of eye movements may be divided into two broad categories: subjective and objective. In the past observation was mostly subjective, but the recent development of electronic instruments has enabled us to record eye movements objectively by electro-oculography (E.O.G.). This procedure has been historically reviewed by Marg (1951), but its clinical application is of comparatively recent date. Mackensen (1957a, b, c) published three reports on the fixation and the saccadic movements of the amblyopic eye, Hiroishi (1958) studied strabismus, Lehnert and Thieme (1962) examined the pursuit movement of paralytic squint, and von Noorden and Mackensen (1962a, b, c) reported some notable findings regarding the pursuit movement and eccentric fixation of the amblyopic eye. These studies all dealt with the one-dimensional recording of eye movements, but the actual movements usually observed are very complicated, taking every direction and varying in both amplitude and velocity. Law and DeValois (1958) proposed to attempt two-dimensional measurements and, on the basis of this two-dimensional recording, Ford, White, and Lichtenstein (1959) succeeded in measuring the reaction time for fixation. The present authors have lately attempted two-dimensional recording of eye movements (Uenoyama, Uenoyama, and linuma, 1963) on the principle of the separation and summation of electrical vectors as adopted by Ford and others. This method is given the tentative name of vector-electro-oculography.