A Cortically Blind Patient With Preserved Visual Imagery

• DOI: 10.1097/wnn.0b013e3181bf2e6e
• Publication Date: 2010-03-18T09:40:38Z
• Authors: Stefano Zago; Stefania Corti; Anna Bersano; Pierluigi Baron; Giancarlo Conti; Elena Ballabio; Silvia Lanfranconi; Claudia Cinnante; Antonella Costa; Alberto Cappellari; Nereo Bresolin
• Keywords: Aged, 80 and over; Male; Cortical blind; Visual mental images; 05 social sciences; Cerebral Infarction; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Severity of Illness Index; Blindness, Cortical; Imagination; Visual Perception; Humans; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Occipital Lobe; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The loss or preservation of visual imagery in patients with cortical blindness may be helpful in resolving the controversial roles assigned by some researchers to the early visual cortex during the process of visual imagery.Here we report a patient with complete permanent cortical blindness coupled with denial of the blindness (Anton syndrome) as a result of bilateral occipital infarction.Interestingly, the patient's ability to visualize objects, color, and spatial imagery was preserved, although cerebral computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography scans detected what was likely complete bilateral damage to the primary visual cortex.Our findings may support the hypothesis that the primary visual cortex, in which retinal spatial geometry is preserved, is not critical for visual imagery.