When I had to teach a small group of medical students about neurological reflexes, I found the question in the title very intriguing. When I asked the question, they all said “no”. They knew from their experience that sight is dependent on conjugate movements of both eyes. Surprisingly, the correct answer is “yes”. So, in front of the students, I actually moved one eye only (this time my left eye, because the left one was easier for me). Of course they were astonished, and stared at me as if I were an alien. After that, I was able to hold their attention easily, and they listened very carefully to my short lecture on neurological reflexes and watched a demonstration of reflexes with fully opened eyes.

A couple of jokes will make your lecture more vivid. A couple of questions will make it more stimulating. However, I do not know of any questions more provoking than the title of this letter in the teaching of neurology.

Figure How to move one eye only Show full caption (1) Stretch your right hand forward with the index finger up, and look at the tip of the index finger. (2) Move the index finger straight toward the centre of your right eye. (3) Reverse procedure 2. In this way you can horizontally move your left eye (centre, to right, to centre), while fixing your right eye. Then practice without your right hand. Once you can quickly move your left eye only without the help of any device, practice moving your right eye only; this is important because otherwise people might think that you are neurologically abnormal. If you would like to know how to move one eye, please study the figure below. One more suggestion: do not practice the method shown in the figure while driving!

Article Info Publication History Identification DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)80050-6 Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ScienceDirect Access this article on ScienceDirect

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