10.14639/0392-100X-N2485
text/xml
1827-675X
2485
en
Edoardo Marcelli
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
ACTA Otorhinolaryngologica Italica
induced nystagmus
Magnetic field, nystagmus and serendipity
Text.Serial.Journal
https://www.actaitalica.it/
43
Letters to the Editor-in-Chief
2023-07-28
2023-01-22
2023-09-29
2023-10-02
360-361
1
Edoardo Marcelli
2023/07/28
10.14639/0392-100X-N2485
360
University of Salerno, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Salerno, Italy
1827-675X
induced nystagmus
en
361
Magnetic field, nystagmus and serendipity
https://www.actaitalica.it/article/download/2485/1030
43
ACTA OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICA ITALICA 2023;43:360-361; doi: 10.14639/0392-100X-N2485




Letter to the Editor


Magnetic field, nystagmus and serendipity
Campo magnetico, nistagmo e serendipità
Vincenzo Marcelli1, Edoardo Marcelli2
1
    UOC ENT Ospedale del Mare, Napoli, Italy; 2 University of Salerno, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Salerno, Italy


KEY WORDS: nystagmus, magnetic resonanance, magnetic field, vertigo, induced
nystagmus
PAROLE CHIAVE: nistagmo, risonanaza magnetica, campo magnetico, vertigine,
nistagmo indotto


Dear Editor,
In these few lines I would like to tell what happened to me to highlight a phe-
nomenon that in recent years is attracting more and more interest: the exist-
ence of a form of nystagmus induced by a magnetic field.
In the summer of 2007, I decided to perform functional MRI (1.5 T) on a group
of healthy subjects (including myself) during a very short pulses of monoaural
irrigation with cold water and on-line registration of the nystagmus in order to
evaluate the event-related functional MRI responses, their spatial layout and
the temporal dynamics of the activated cortical and subcortical regions in time-
locking with the instant of injection. The research yielded interesting results 1.
Indeed, for the first time the temporal envelope of eye movement traces was
not found to be significantly correlated with the blood-oxygen-level-depend-
ent (BOLD) response on a time point basis. We attributed this phenomenon to
various mechanisms, one of which would have become extremely interesting,
although it would have gone almost unnoticed in this work. In fact, we wrote:
“The identification of the very same time instant of nystagmus initiation on
the traces was made problematic by the existence of spontaneous nystagmus                   Received: January 22, 2023
                                                                                            Accepted: April 21, 2023
activity preceding the injection, which could be related to the spontaneous
                                                                                            Published online: July 28, 2023
vestibular stimulation recently described as a consequence of the exposure to
strong magnetic fields in the MRI environment” 2,3. I found that all subjects de-           Correspondence
veloped a robust horizontal nystagmus directed to the left while simply lying               Vincenzo Marcelli
in the static magnetic field of an MRI machine, which persisted for the entire              via Difesa 102, 84043 Agropoli (SA), Italy
                                                                                            E-mail: vincenzo.marcelli@hotmail.it.
permanence in the magnetic field and disappeared as soon as one moved away
from it (Fig. 1). For the first time, magnetic field induced nystagmus was high-
                                                                                              How to cite this article: Marcelli V, Marcelli E.
lighted and described. Even though I never published further confirmations,                   Magnetic field, nystagmus and serendipity. Acta
three years later I decided to talk about this “discovery” with David Samuel                  Otorhinolaryngol Ital 2023;43:360-361. https://
Zee and Daniele Nuti. A week later, David Samuel Zee, at the Kennedy-Krieg-                   doi.org/10.14639/0392-100X-N2485
er Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, confirmed the existence
                                                                                            © Società Italiana di Otorinolaringoiatria
of a magnetic field induced nystagmus and, a few months later, a paper was                  e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale
published which explained its characteristics and genesis in detail 4. Over the
years, numerous other works have been published on this topic, with obvious                                OPEN ACCESS

repercussions ranging from the pathophysiology of the vestibular system to                  This is an open access article distributed in accordance with
                                                                                            the CC-BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Non-
occupational medicine and possible therapeutic applications 5-10.                           Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) license. The
                                                                                            article can be used by giving appropriate credit and mentio-
                                                                                            ning the license, but only for non-commercial purposes and
Conflict of interest statement                                                              only in the original version. For further information: https://
The authors declare no conflict of interest.                                                creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en




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Figure 1. Left-beating nystagmus recorded in two subjects within the magnetic field.


Funding                                                                         3
                                                                                     Glover P. Magnetic field-induced vertigo in the MRI environment. Curr
                                                                                     Radiol Rep 2015;3:29. https://doi.org//10.1007/s40134-015-0112-1
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding                   4
                                                                                     Roberts DC, Marcelli V, Gillen JS, et al. MRI magnetic field stimu-
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.                       lates rotational sensors of the brain. Curr Biol 2011;21:1635‑1640.
                                                                                     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.029
Author contributions                                                            5
                                                                                     Ward BK, Roberts DC, Della Santina CC, et al. Magnetic vestibular
VM: conceptualisation, data curation, formal analysis, su-                           stimulation in subjects with unilateral labyrinthine disorders. Front
                                                                                     Neurol 2014;5:28. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2014.00028
pervision, writing – original draft, writing – review & edit-                   6
                                                                                     Ward BK, Roberts DC, Della Santina CC, et al. Vestibular stimulation
ing; EM: conceptualisation, data curation, resources, Writ-                          by magnetic fields. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2015;1343:69‑79. https://doi.
ing – review & editing                                                               org/10.1111/nyas.12702
                                                                                7
                                                                                     Mian OS, Glover PM, Day BL. Reconciling magnetically in-
Ethical consideration                                                                duced vertigo and nystagmus. Front Neurol 2015;6:201. https://doi.
                                                                                     org/10.3389/fneur.2015.00201
Not applicable.                                                                 8
                                                                                     Boegle R, Stephan T, Ertl M, et al. Magnetic vestibular stimula-
                                                                                     tion modulates default mode network fluctuations. Neuroimage
References                                                                           2016;127:409‑421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.11.065
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                                                                                     Ward BK, Roberts DC, Otero-Millan J, et al. A decade of magnetic ves-
1
    Marcelli V, Esposito F, Aragri A, et al. Spatio-temporal pattern of ves-         tibular stimulation: from serendipity to physics to the clinic. J Neuro-
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                                                                                     Go CC, Taskin HO, Ahmadi SA, et al. Persistent horizontal and ver-
2
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    fields. PLoS One 2013;8:E78748. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.                 Project data. Neuroimage 2022;255:119170.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
    pone.0078748                                                                     neuroimage.2022.119170




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