搜索了从公元前2千年到公元9世纪的各种古代文化的原始文本和专家翻译,以进行非自愿眼球运动的历史观察。异常,自发性眼球运动是一种容易识别的神经眼科症状,既可以是先天性的,也可以是获得性的。被希波克拉底(460-370BC)和Galenos(129-216AD)称为“河马”的眼球振荡与眼球震颤同义,一个术语最早出现在18世纪。对河马的原始描述表明是天生的,回顾性分析可能与先天性(婴儿)眼球震颤或盲人的持续不自主眼球运动有关。不同跳动方向的异常不自主眼球运动的其他描述,可能与眩晕有关,癫痫发作或耳部症状及其对患者生活质量的影响(例如,视力模糊)保存在许多零碎的古代文献中,包括埃及的纸莎草纸卷和石碑,美索不达米亚,印度,中国,希腊,罗马和中东。尽管对眼球运动方向和类型的稀疏原始描述可能会激发大胆的医学解释,根据我们目前对眼部运动障碍的临床分类,尝试将它们分配给不同的眼球震颤形式时需要谨慎。
Original texts and expert translations from various ancient cultures covering a time span from the 2nd millennium BC to the ninth century AD were searched for historical observations of involuntary eye movements. Abnormal, spontaneous eye movements are an easily recognisable neuro-ophthalmological symptom that can be both congenital and acquired. Ocular oscillations termed \'hippos\' by Hippocrates (460-370BC) and Galenos (129-216AD) are synonymous with nystagmus, a term first introduced in the eighteenth century. The original description of hippos suggests an innate onset, which retrospectively can be related to either congenital (infantile) nystagmus or continuous involuntary eye movements of the blind. Other descriptions of abnormal involuntary eye movements with different beating directions, possibly associated with vertigo, seizures or ear symptoms and their impact on patients\' quality of life (e.g. oscillopsia, blurred vision) are preserved in many fragmentary ancient documents including papyrus scrolls and stone tablets from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Greece, Rome and the Middle East. Although the sparse original descriptions of the direction and type of eye movements may inspire daring medical interpretations, caution is required when attempting to assign them to distinct nystagmus forms according to our current clinical classification of ocular motor disorders.