Nystagmus:
"The Eye Test"
(Part 2)
Information
courtesy of Lawrence Taylor - DUIblog
I
mentioned in the previous post that few officers understand the
nystagmus test, administer it correctly, or score it objectively.
Further
problems with using the nystagmus test in DUI investigations have
been summarized by a noted expert in the area, Dr. L. F. Dell'Osso,
Professor of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University School
of Medicine and Director of the Ocular Motor Neurophysiology Laboratory
at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Cleveland:
Using
nystagmus as an indicator of alcohol intoxication is an unfortunate
choice, since many normal individuals have physiologic end-point
nystagmus...Without a neuro-opthalmologist or someone knowledgeable
about sophisticated methods of eye movement recordings, it is
difficult to determine whether the nystagmus is pathologic. It
is unreasonable that such difficult judgments have been placed
in the hands of minimally trained officers. Dell'Osso, "Nystagmus,
Saccadic Intrusions, Oscillations and Oscillopsia", 147 Current
Neuro-Opthalmology 147.
See
also an interesting article by Umeda and Sakata entitled "Alcohol
and the Oculomotor System", 87 Annals of Otology Rhinology
69, wherein scientists concluded that gaze nystagmus was one of
the least sensitive eye measurements of alcohol intoxication.
The
nystagmus which officers are trained to believe indicates intoxication
is naturally present in some individuals without the presence of
alcohol. It can also be caused by many other factors, as the Supreme
Court of Kansas has noted after a review of the scientific literature:
Nystagmus
can be caused by problems in an individual's inner ear.... Physiological
problems such as certain kinds of diseases can result in gaze
nystagmus....Furthermore, conditions such
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