Vestibulo-ocular reflex

The doll's head phenomenon is a term used in ophthalmology and clinical neurology, which is used for a physiological reflex phenomenon. He describes the effects of a brain stem reflex that triggers certain eye movements, which are fully leads when in the fixation of an object of a person's head is moved quickly in horizontal or vertical direction back and forth. Adequate reflection response is a movement counter to the direction of rotation of the head to the eyes. It is used to view stabilization, since the eyes are directed to the fixed object through these compensatory movements, similar to the fixed stare of a doll with movable eyes mounted.

The reflection of this compensatory eye movement underlying means vestibulookulärer reflex (VOR, obsolete: okulozephaler reflex). The reflex arc is the inner ear ( semicircular canals ) → brainstem ( center view ) → oculomotor cranial nerves (III, IV, VI).

In healthy people, this automatism is suppressed (for example, when tracking moving objects in the visual field ); in various stages of consciousness can diagnose different forms: When mesoporous patients the reflex assessment is usually positive, but with a delay of, in deeper coma stages often negatively as a sign of central and / or brain stem lesions. It is part of the so-called brain death diagnosis in routine testing is required of certain brain stem reflexes.

In effect, the reflection corresponds to the effect of the image stabilizer function of modern video cameras.