Braille alexia during visual hallucination in a blind man with selective calcarine atrophy

The case of a 56-year-old man who has been blind for 25 years due to retinal degeneration is herein described. The patient complained of elementary visual hallucination, during which it was difficult for him to read Braille. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed marked atrophy of the bilateral striate cortex. Visual hallucination as a release phenomenon of the primary visual cortex has never been reported to cause alexia for Braille. The present case supports the results of recent functional imaging studies of the recruitment of striate and prestriate cortex for Braille reading.