Congenital idiopathic nystagmus (CIN) is characterized by monoocular or biocular involuntary,rhythmical,repeated oscillations.CIN is often referred to congenital 'motor' nystagmus since nystagmus occurs in the absence of a clinically demonstrable defect in the visual sensory system.CIN is genetically heterogeneous,and patterns of its inheritance have been well-known to include autosomal dominant.autosomal recessive and X-linked patterns.In recent years, many different genetic loci for CIN have been mapped,and researchers have found some candidate causing-disease genes.This review focuses on the recent advances of gene mapping and candidate gene analysis for molecular research of CIN.