Smile, Your Eyes Are on Camera

There are a variety of diagnostic tests available to practitioners to see what’s happening internally with a patient to be causing symptoms. Some of these put your eyes front and center, and that is exactly the case with a videonystagmography (VNG) test. In this test your eyes are truly the star of the show, and the doctors and team at a clinic will use their own eyes to watch yours very carefully. To have a better understanding of how the test is run and what practitioners watch for on the administrating end, we’ll break down the steps we go through to get the best diagnostic reading, as well as what we can deduce from the test results.

The Initial Setup

Patients are set up in a dark room positioned in front of a television screen where visual stimuli such as isolated dots and moving bars can be displayed. To track the patient’s eye movements, they are fitted with a pair of VNG goggles that include cameras to record all movements. This allows practitioners and technicians to see not only when the eyes are properly tracking the stimuli at hand in the optimal way, but also when extemporaneous movements are present as well. Such movements contribute to the findings report that a doctor and their team will generate to help paint the big picture of the patient’s neurological health – and in this test specifically, their vestibular health.

Since the test is tracking movement of your eyes, we want all tracking of visual stimuli to be done with the eyes only, meaning that you will never move your head yourself for the duration of the exam. A large part of the test will require you to track a green dot in different positions, whether it be saccading, or randomly jumping from point to point, or it be performing a pursuit, where it moves smoothly from side to side or top to bottom. We want to see the ability to follow the stimuli smoothly, and anything aside from that would be considered a finding.

The Results and What it Means for You

Our team of doctors will then go over the computer-generated graphs of your eye movement as well as the video recording of your eyes during the exam to take note of what findings were reported. This lets us know how your vestibular system might be operating differently than the optimal state and informs what treatments we will offer to you.

The entirety of the test is looking for any sign of nystagmus, which is where eyes move uncontrollably up and down or side to side, rapidly or slowly. This happens briefly to some people when we move our head quickly or in certain directions, but if it occurs over a longer period or even when you’re just sitting still, it may be an indication of a vestibular, or inner ear, disorder:

• Balance issues
• Dizziness
• Pressure in the ears
• Lightheadedness
• Tinnitus
• Vertigo

During and after the test, some individuals might feel dizzy or off balance and that generally wears off. It may not be the most comfortable test, but in those 25 minutes doctors are able to gain a ton of good data that helps them help you in the best way possible. So next time you come in for a VNG, remember to smile because you’re on camera!