ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neuro-Ophthalmology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1624192
Horizontal gaze-evo ked nystagmus in pontine gaze palsy : patterns and anatomical correlates
Provisionally accepted
Seo-Young Choi1
Jae-Hwan Choi2Hyun Sung Kim2Ju-Young Lee3Sun-Uk Lee4Seung-Han Lee5Jae-Myung Kim5Hyun Ah Kim6Ji-Yun Park7
Kwangdong Choi8*- 1Pusan National University Hospital, Seo-gu, Republic of Korea
- 2Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Republic of Korea
- 3Eunpyeong St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 4Korea University Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 5Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
- 6Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu, Republic of Korea
- 7Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, Republic of Korea
- 8pusan national university hospital, busan, Republic of Korea
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Background: To delineate the patterns and anatomical correlates of gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN) in horizontal gaze palsy due to dorsal pontine lesions.Methods: A total of 17 patients with horizontal gaze palsy and unilateral dorsal pontine lesions were retrospectively recruited from referral-based six university hospitals in Korea.The clinical characteristics, oculographic data, and MRI lesions of the patients were subjected to analysis.Results: Patients had complete (n=10, 60%) or partial (n=7, 40%) horizontal gaze palsy. Ten patients (60%) showed contralesional horizontal-torsional spontaneous nystagmus.Horizontal GEN was identified in 14 of the 17 patients (82%), which was contralesional (n=8, 57%), bilateral (n=5, 36%), and ipsilesional (n=1, 7%). The lesion overlays revealed that damage to the surrounding area of the abducens nucleus was responsible for the generation of GEN in patients with pontine gaze palsy.Conclusions: Horizontal GEN is a common manifestation of pontine gaze palsy. In lesions in the vicinity of the abducens nucleus, the selective or extensive disruption of the connections between the ipsilateral or contralateral horizontal neural integrators and the abducens nucleus may result in diverse patterns of horizontal GEN.
Keywords: Abducens Nucleus, paramedian pontine reticular formation, Gaze-evoked nystagmus, Horizontal gaze palsy, Pons
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Choi, Choi, Kim, Lee, Lee, Lee, Kim, Kim, Park and Choi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kwangdong Choi, pusan national university hospital, busan, Republic of Korea
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