Abstract
Ingestion of alcohol reduces cerbellar control of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). To investigate compensatory processes after labyrinthine loss, we examined VOR and gaze function before and after alcohol ingestion in 10 patients. A control study was done on 17 normal adults. The subjects were rotated sinusoidally in an electorically driven chair under two conditions : mental arithmatic in the dark and gaze fixation on a target on the wall. Normal adults did not show any significant change in gain after alcohol ingestion in either case. The patients with unilateral labyrinthine loss presented larger differences in the gains between rotation to the intact side and to the affected side after alcohol ingestion. These changes were found in both the alert-in-the dark condition and the spatially-fixed target condition. The present study suggests significant cerebellar control of VOR and gaze function during recovery from unilateral labyrinthine loss.
