Postnatal development of optokinetic after nystagmus in human infants.

During the first few months of life after birth human infants when tested monocularly move their unoccluded eye nasalward in darkness after viewing a large textured visual field moving either nasalward or temporalward. The eye movements in darkness are optokinetic after nystagmus (OKAN) which is an aftereffect of a reflex horizontal following eye movement, optokinetic nystagmus (OKN). Not until 4-5 months of age did temporalward field motion evoke OKAN with temporalward slow phase.

Graphical analysis of prism adaptation, convergence accommodation, and accommodative convergence.

A new form of graphical case analysis is described which quantifies static interactions between accommodative convergence, convergence accommodation, and prism adaptation. A clinical gradient measure of the CA/C ratio is compared to haploscopic measures to demonstrate the validity of the new clinical technique for measuring convergence accommodation. Graphical and computational methods are illustrated which predict the quantitative interactions between accommodation and convergence that occur after the phoria is partially corrected by lenses or prisms.

Head rotation trajectories compared with eye saccades by main sequence relationships.

A helmet apparatus permitted duration, peak velocity, and peak acceleration measurements as functions of magnitude of horizontal head rotation; these "main sequence" data give evidence for multipulse-step neurological signals appropriate for time optimal control of head rotation similar to those of saccadic eye movements.

Botulism, type A, and treatment with guanidine.

In a double-blind crossover study in which patients received placebo or active drug for varying periods, we evaluated the ability of guanidine hydrochloride (20 to 35 mg/kg per day perorally) to improve the rate of recovery in patients with moderate or severe botulism, type A, intoxication. Among 14 patients who received conventional botulism therapy, there was no improvement in recovery rate in those who received guanidine compared with the nontreated group. Individual patients in the treated group showed neither an acceleration in their rate of improvement when they received guanidine nor a regression in their progress when the drug was stopped.