What is Nystagmus?
The rapid, involuntary, rhythmic eye movements which occur normally during and after head rotation and sometimes with dizziness are called nystagmus.
These are normal eye movements which occur any time someone rotates his/her head in a horizontal direction.
View a short movie demonstrating nystagmus. (This eye movement which would occur if this person were turning the head to the left.)
For PC users: Nystagmus (.wmv)
- For Apple users: Nystagmus (.mov) If the movie does not load, go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ to download free software to play the movie.
This video shows horizontal nystagmus: normal eye movements which occur any time someone rotates his/her head in a horizontal direction.
Another type of nystagmus called torsional (circular) nystagus can occur with an inner ear problem called positional vertigo. View a short movie demonstrating this type of eye movement.
- For PC users: For PC users: Circular or Torsional Nystagmus (.wmv)
- For Apple users: Circular or Torsional Nystagmus (.mov)