Test setup

Head-shaking nystagmus

A transient nystagmus released by vigorous head-shaking.

Live · Head-shaking (20 seconds horizontal)
Stylised teaching animation, exaggerated for visibility — not a recording of a real patient, and not a diagnosis.
Localises toTest setup
Bedside testHead-shaking (20 seconds horizontal)
Fast phaseRight-beating

What the animation does not show. The word in the summary is TRANSIENT, and the animation is not. It loops a steady horizontal beat, so it cannot show the release-then-decay that defines the sign, and it cannot show the cross-coupled vertical response that would point central. The shaking itself is not animated either.

Reading

After about twenty seconds of brisk horizontal head-shaking, a stored vestibular imbalance can release a short-lived nystagmus. A horizontal beat toward the stronger ear fits a peripheral loss; a cross-coupled response, such as a vertical beat after horizontal shaking, suggests a central lesion. It is a provoking test, not a localiser on its own.

Source: Leigh & Zee; Hain (head-shaking nystagmus).

Practice this in the trainerPlay today’s case

Other signs

No skew

Alternate cover test

No nystagmus

Primary gaze / positional

Ocular tilt reaction

Alternate cover test + head posture
Stylised teaching animations authored by NeuroDash. Not real-patient recordings, not board-certified, and not reviewed by an outside specialist. Educational only — not medical advice and not a diagnosis.