Ocular Microtremor as a clinical and scientific tool in neurologic disease : validation and application of a generalised discovery protocol

Abstract

Ocular microtremor (OMT) , a high frequency low amplitude eye movement, is one of three fixational eye movements present even when the eyes are apparently at rest. The tremor is thought to be related to tonic neural discharges to the extraocular muscles originating in brainstem neurons. OMT has been largely overlooked as a potential diagnostic aid in recent years for a number of reasons, including difficulty in measurement, lack of clarity regarding the effects of psychoactive drugs and metabolic and neurological variation on OMT. The work presented here addresses some of these issues, to advance the utility of OMT in the clinical environment.