MS. RESHU YADAV,MR. SHIVAM KUMAR,MR. DAYASHANKAR RASTOGI,MS. ASMITA MISHRA
DOI: https://doi.org/Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is increasingly recognized as a multisystem disorder in which eye movement abnormalities provide important diagnostic and prognostic insights.
Objective: This review synthesizes current evidence on oculomotor disturbances in PD, their clinical relevance, and their potential as biomarkers for early detection and disease monitoring.
Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases up to 2025. Eligible studies included clinical, neurophysiological, and eye-tracking investigations that reported on saccades, vergence, and smooth pursuit in PD patients. Data on study characteristics, patient demographics, methods, and outcomes were extracted and narratively synthesized.
Results: Across studies, PD patients demonstrated prolonged saccadic latency, reduced vergence amplitudes, and impaired smooth pursuit, often correlating with disease severity. Some abnormalities were evident even in early stages, preceding overt motor dysfunction. Interventions such as prisms, vergence exercises, and vision therapy showed potential benefits in alleviating diplopia and improving visual function. Quantitative eye-tracking measures emerged as promising objective biomarkers for disease monitoring.
Discussion: Oculomotor assessment offers significant clinical implications, from supporting early diagnosis and differential recognition of parkinsonian syndromes to guiding rehabilitative strategies that enhance visual quality of life. However, heterogeneity of methodologies and limited longitudinal data constrain generalizability.
Conclusions: Eye movement abnormalities represent a valuable, underutilized tool in PD care. Standardization of assessment protocols, integration with neuroimaging, and validation through large-scale longitudinal studies are essential to establish oculomotor metrics as reliable biomarkers for clinical practice.
