TY - JOUR
T1 - A historic case of visual agnosia revisited after 40 years
AU - Sparr, Steven A.
AU - Jay, Milton
AU - Drislane, Frank W.
AU - Venna, Nagagopal
PY - 1991/4
Y1 - 1991/4
N2 - In one of the seminal works on visual agnosia, Adler (1944, 1950) presented the case of a 22-yr-old woman who sustained carbon monoxide cerebral toxicity in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub disaster of 1942. We located this patient 40 yrs after injury and performed a detailed reevaluation. The patient demonstrated persistent deficits in visual recognition, characterized most prominently by defective recognition of elemental shape and form, associated with alexia, prosopagnosia, visuospatial disorientation and impaired visual imagery. Visual acuity, colour recognition, writing ability and verbal intelligence were relatively preserved. Isolated bilateral occipital injury was demonstrated by CT and MRI scanning. On comparison with previously reported cases, our results support the hypothesis that carbon monoxide toxicity can induce a visual agnosia of the apperceptive type with well defined characteristics, seldom seen with other types of cerebral injury. Prognosis for long-term recovery is poor.
AB - In one of the seminal works on visual agnosia, Adler (1944, 1950) presented the case of a 22-yr-old woman who sustained carbon monoxide cerebral toxicity in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub disaster of 1942. We located this patient 40 yrs after injury and performed a detailed reevaluation. The patient demonstrated persistent deficits in visual recognition, characterized most prominently by defective recognition of elemental shape and form, associated with alexia, prosopagnosia, visuospatial disorientation and impaired visual imagery. Visual acuity, colour recognition, writing ability and verbal intelligence were relatively preserved. Isolated bilateral occipital injury was demonstrated by CT and MRI scanning. On comparison with previously reported cases, our results support the hypothesis that carbon monoxide toxicity can induce a visual agnosia of the apperceptive type with well defined characteristics, seldom seen with other types of cerebral injury. Prognosis for long-term recovery is poor.
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U2 - 10.1093/brain/114.2.789
DO - 10.1093/brain/114.2.789
M3 - Article
C2 - 2043949
AN - SCOPUS:0025852191
SN - 0006-8950
VL - 114
SP - 789
EP - 800
JO - Brain
JF - Brain
IS - 2
ER -