“Blindsight”: Improvement of visually guided eye movements by systematic practice in patients with cerebral blindness

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Abstract

Patients with damage to the geniculo-striate visual pathways were trained to discriminate different positions of targets presented briefly in the blind region of their visual field. The results indicate that the ability to detect and localize stimuli improved markedly after the systematic training of visually evoked saccadic eye movements. It is concluded that even in the absence of the striate cortex detection and localization of stimuli remained still intact, and that this visual capacity is probably mediated by the extrastriate retionotecnal pathway.

Résumé

On a entrainé des malades avec atteinte des voies visuelles géniculo-striées à discriminer différentes positions de cibles présentées brièvement dans les régions aveugles de leur champ. Les résultats indiquent que la capacité à détecter et à localiser les stimulus augmentait de façon nette après un entrainement systématique des mouvements oculaires saccadiques évoqués visuellement. On en conclut que mēme en l'absence du cortex strié, la détection et la localisation du stimulus restent encore intacte et que cette capacité visuelle est probablement sous-tendue par la voie rétino-tectale extra-striée.

Zusammenfassung

Patienten mit Läsionen der genikulo-striären Sehbahn wurden trainiert, die Position tachistoskopisch dargebotener Lichtreize in ihrem blinden Gesichtsfeldbereich zu entdecken. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß die Entdeckung und Lokalisation dieser Lichtreize nach dem systematischen Training der Augenzuwendebegungen erheblich verbessert werden konnte. Dies bedeutet, daß auch nach Wegfall der genikulo-striären Sehbahn die Lokalisation von Objekten die im blinden Halbfeld auftauchen, möglich ist. Es wird angenommen, daß diese Funktion durch die extrastriäre retinotektale Sehbahn vermittelt wird.

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