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Residual vision in a subject with damaged visual cortex.

H Schärli¹, A M Harman, J H Hogben

¹University of Western Australia, Australia.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

|October 8, 1999

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Even with brain damage causing blind visual fields, some individuals exhibit residual vision. This study found a subject perceived stimuli in a blind area, suggesting spared visual cortex regions may be responsible.

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Ophthalmology

Background:

Lesions in the optic radiation or striate cortex cause blind visual field regions.
Some individuals report residual vision or blindsight in these damaged areas.
Extrastriate visual pathways bypassing the striate cortex are hypothesized to mediate these phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate residual vision in a subject with perimetrically blind visual areas due to bilateral brain damage.
To explore the potential for visual perception in areas of the visual field typically rendered blind by cortical lesions.

Main Methods:

A subject with known bilateral brain damage causing blind visual areas participated.
Black and white stimuli were presented across intact and affected visual field regions.

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The subject reported stimulus presence and color (black/white) with confidence levels.

Main Results:

An area within the subject's "blind" visual field demonstrated perception of a light flash.
This perception occurred specifically when the experimental black stimulus was presented.
The subject's performance in this blind area was above chance, indicating residual visual function.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest a spared region within the visual cortex may account for the observed residual vision.
This supports the hypothesis of functional visual pathways existing despite significant striate cortex damage.
Further research into these spared regions could illuminate mechanisms of blindsight and visual recovery.