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Related Experiment Videos

Visual command hallucinations in a patient with pure alexia.

D H Ffytche1, J M Lappin, M Philpot

  • 1Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5, UK. d.ffytche@iop.kcl.ac.uk

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
|January 7, 2004
PubMed
Summary

This study describes a unique case of syntacto-semantic visual hallucinations, characterized by meaningful, threatening sentences, distinct from typical orthographic hallucinations. These findings suggest a new category of visual text hallucinations potentially linked to brain networks involved in auditory hallucinations.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Ophthalmology
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Visual hallucinations secondary to eye disease often involve meaningless text (orthographic hallucinations).
  • The visual word form area (VWFA) in the left posterior fusiform gyrus is associated with processing written words.

Observation:

  • A patient presented with syntacto-semantic visual hallucinations—meaningful, grammatically correct sentences, often threatening or commanding.
  • This occurred after bilateral occipito-temporal infarcts, leading to a ventral occipito-temporal syndrome including pure alexia.

Findings:

  • The patient's pure alexia indicates the visual word form area (VWFA) was likely not responsible for the syntacto-semantic hallucinations.
  • The nature of these hallucinations suggests a different underlying neural mechanism than orthographic hallucinations.

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Implications:

  • Syntacto-semantic visual hallucinations may represent a distinct category of textual hallucinations.
  • This phenomenon could be related to the cortical networks involved in auditory hallucinations, such as those seen in schizophrenia.