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Palinopsia and bitemporal visual extinction on fixation
Annals of Ophthalmology
|April 1, 1985
Summary
Spontaneous visual perseveration and extinction occurred in a multiple sclerosis patient with optic neuritis. These visual symptoms, typically linked to brain lesions, arose from optic nerve damage, suggesting cortical integration.
Area of Science:
- Neuro-ophthalmology
- Neuroscience
- Clinical Neurology
Background:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease affecting the central nervous system.
- Retrobulbar optic neuritis is a common manifestation of MS, causing visual impairment.
- Visual perseveration (palinopsia) and extinction are complex visual phenomena.
Observation:
- A patient with chronic bilateral retrobulbar optic neuritis due to MS developed spontaneous palinopsia and bitemporal visual extinction.
- These visual disturbances were provoked solely by ocular fixation.
- No evidence of hemispheral compromise was detected in the patient.
Findings:
- The intermittent visual symptoms appeared to originate from the lesioned optic nerves.
- The study suggests that the integration of these symptoms likely occurred at a cortical level.
- Palinopsia, usually associated with posterior cortical lesions, was observed in a case with peripheral visual pathway lesions.
Implications:
- This case challenges the traditional localization of palinopsia to posterior hemispheral lesions.
- It highlights the potential for peripheral visual pathway lesions to manifest with symptoms typically attributed to cortical dysfunction.
- The findings underscore the complex interplay between peripheral and central visual processing in neurological disorders like MS.