Eye movement tests, such as the optokinetic pattern test (OKP test), the eye tracking test (ET test) and“the verbal voluntary eye movement test (VVEM test) ” were administrated to aphasia patients. An attempt was made to investigate a possible relationship between the eye movement test results and the location of lesions in the cerebral hemisphere as well as functional neurological disturbances extending to the brain stem. Six patients, including four with motor aphasia and two with sensory aphasia, were examined in this study. The results obtained were as follows:
1) Asymmetric optokinetic patterns with directional preponderance towards the side of the cerebral lesion were demonstrated by the OKP test in five of the six patients.
2) The quick component of the optokinetic nystagmus was markedly defective at an early stage of the disease in five patients and recovered during a period from three to twelve months in four of the five patients.
3) Marked saccadic eye movements were revealed by the ET test in a patient with motor aphasia caused by head trauma. This finding suggested that in the patient there might be some disturbances at the level of the brain stem in addition to the cerebral lesion.
4) Difficulties in moving the eyes in response to the verbal commands were observed by using the VVEM test in four patients with motor or sensory aphasia. The difficulty observed in the patients with sensory aphasia was found to be due to that in understanding the verbal stimuli, while the impaired verbal voluntary eye movements noted in the patients with motor aphasia were attributed to both the disability to understand the spoken words and apraxia of the eye movement.
