Palinopsia and bitemporal visual extinction on fixation

Spontaneous palinopsia (visual perseveration) and bitemporal visual extinction provoked only by ocular fixation developed in a patient with multiple sclerosis who had chronic bilateral retrobulbar optic neuritis. There were no signs of hemispheral compromise. The intermittent visual symptoms seemingly arose from the lesioned optic nerves, but were probably integrated at a cortical level. Palinopsia, classically considered diagnostic of posterior hemispheral cortical lesions, can also occur in patients with peripherally placed lesions of the visual pathways.