Spontaneous nystagmus across the sleep-wake cyc̀le in vegetative state patients

Carlos R. Gordon, Arie Oksenberg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The presence of spontaneous CNS nystagmus during wakefulness was documented for the first time in 6 vegetative-state (VS) patients. Nystagmus of smaller amplitude as compared to the awake state was consistently detected in each patient during stage 1 of sleep. There was complete absence of nystagmus during stage 2 and slow wave sleep (SWS) in all the patients. Clear nystagmus episodes were observed during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in all patients. Some nystagmus episodes followed rapid eye movements (REMs), some were unrelated to REMs while others were superimposed on REMs. It is suggested that spontaneous neural activation during REM sleep may allow the episodic emergence of nystagmus during this sleep stage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)132-137
Number of pages6
JournalElectroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
Volume86
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1993

Keywords

  • Nystagmus
  • Sleep-wake cycle
  • Vegetative state

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