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Congenital nystagmus, involuntary oscillating small eye movements, is commonly thought to originate from aberrant interactions between brainstem nuclei and foveal cortical pathways. Here we investigated whether nystagmus associated with congenital stationary nightblindness (CSNB) can result from primary deficits in the retina. We found that CSNB patients as well as an animal model (nob mice), both of which lack functional nyctalopin protein (NYX, nyx) in ON bipolar cells (ON-BC) at their synapse with photoreceptors, showed oscillating eye movements at a frequency of 4-7Hz. nob ON direction selective ganglion cells (ON-DSGC), which detect global motion and project to the accessory optic system (AOS), oscillated with the same frequency as their eyes. In the dark, individual ganglion cells (GC) oscillated asynchronously, but their oscillations became synchronized by light stimulation. Likewise, both patient and nob mice oscillating eye movements were only present in the light. Retinal pharmacological manipulations that blocked nob ON-DSGC oscillations also eliminated their oscillating eye movements, and retinal pharmacological manipulations that reduced oscillation frequency of nob ON-DSGCs also reduced oscillation frequency of their eye movements. We conclude that, in nob mice, oscillations of retinal ON-DSGCs cause nystagmus with properties similar to those associated with CSNB in humans. These results show that the nob mouse is the first animal model for a form of congenital nystagmus paving the way for development of therapeutic strategies.

Congenital nystagmus, involuntary oscillating small eye movements, is commonly thought to originate from aberrant interactions between brainstem nuclei and foveal cortical pathways. Here, we investigated whether nystagmus associated with congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) results from primary deficits in the retina. We found that CSNB patients as well as an animal model (nob mice), both of which lacked functional nyctalopin protein (NYX, nyx) in ON bipolar cells (BCs) at their synapse with photoreceptors, showed oscillating eye movements at a frequency of 4–7 Hz. nob ON direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs), which detect global motion and project to the accessory optic system (AOS), oscillated with the same frequency as their eyes. In the dark, individual ganglion cells (GCs) oscillated asynchronously, but their oscillations became synchronized by light stimulation. Likewise, both patient and nob mice oscillating eye movements were only present in the light when contrast was present. Retinal pharmacological and genetic manipulations that blocked nob GC oscillations also eliminated their oscillating eye movements, and retinal pharmacological manipulations that reduced the oscillation frequency of nob GCs also reduced the oscillation frequency of their eye movements. We conclude that, in nob mice, synchronized oscillations of retinal GCs, most likely the ON-DCGCs, cause nystagmus with properties similar to those associated with CSNB in humans. These results show that the nob mouse is the first animal model for a form of congenital nystagmus, paving the way for development of therapeutic strategies., Nystagmus (involuntary eye movements) in cases of congenital stationary night blindness arises from light-induced synchronization of oscillating retinal ganglion cells, revealing that some forms of nystagmus can have a retinal origin, rather than originating from aberrant interactions between brainstem nuclei and foveal cortical pathways, as commonly thought.