Higiene de la vista (s. XIX). Parte 1 / Sight hygiene in the 19th century. Part 1

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Higiene de la vista (s. XIX). Parte 2 / Sight hygiene in the 19th century. Part 2

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[Johann Sebastian Bach's disease and his bizarre english physician]. / La enfermedad de Johann Sebastian Bach y su mediático médico inglés.

Johann Sebastian Bach suffered during the last year of his life of a progressive visual defect despite two operations done by a famous but quite controversial English ocular surgeon of that time. The exact diagnosis of his ocular problems is unclear but cataracts and complicated glaucoma seem the most plausible. A septic complication following the ocular surgery could have weakened Bach's health leading to his death only three months after the last intervention. In this paper diverse less known aspects of Bach's disease and life are reported.

La enfermedad de Johann Sebastian Bach y su mediático médico inglés / Johann Sebastian Bach's disease and his bizarre english physician

Johann Sebastian Bach suffered during the last year of his life of a progressive visual defect despite two operations done by a famous but quite controversial English ocular surgeon of that time. The exact diagnosis of his ocular problems is unclear but cataracts and complicated glaucoma seem the most plausible. A septic complication following the ocular surgery could have weakened Bach's health leading to his death only three months after the last intervention. In this paper diverse less known aspects of Bach's disease and life are reported.

Optic ataxia: beyond the dorsal stream cliché.

This chapter reviews clinical and scientific approaches to optic ataxia. This double historic track allows us to address important issues such as the link between Bálint syndrome and optic ataxia, the alleged double dissociation between optic ataxia and visual agnosia, and the use of optic ataxia to argue for a specific vision-for-action occipitoposterior parietal stream. Clinical cases are described and reveal that perceptual deficits have been long shown to accompany ataxia. Importantly, the term ataxia appears to be misleading as patients exhibit a combination of visual and nonvisual perceptual, attentional, and visuomotor guidance deficits, which are confirmed by experimental approaches. Three major features of optic ataxia are described. The first is a spatial feature whereby the deficits exhibited by patients appear to be specific to peripheral vision, akin to the field effect. Visuomotor field examination allows us to quantify this deficit and reveals that it consists of a highly reliable retinocentric hypometria. The third is a temporal feature whereby these deficits are exacerbated under temporal constraints, i.e., when attending to dynamic stimuli. These two aspects combine in a situation where patients have to quickly respond to a target presented in peripheral vision that is experimentally displaced upon movement onset. In addition to the field effect, a hand effect can be described in conditions where the hand is not visible. Spatial and temporal aspects as well as field and hand effects may rely on several posterior parietal modules that remain to be precisely identified both anatomically and functionally. It is concluded that optic ataxia is not a visuomotor deficit and there is no dissociation between perception and action capacities in optic ataxia, hence a fortiori no double dissociation between optic ataxia and visual agnosia. Future directions for understanding the basic pathophysiology of optic ataxia are proposed.

Bilateral parietal dysfunctions and disconnections in simultanagnosia and Bálint syndrome.

In 1909 Rezsö Bálint published an extraordinary case study of a man with complex visuospatial deficits resulting from bilateral parietal lesions. Despite some controversies over the nature of reported symptoms, in 1954 Hecaen and Ajuriaguerra conceived the term "Bálint syndrome," not only to honor Bálint's influential work but to firmly conceptualize this striking neurologic disorder. Nowadays it is largely agreed that, while Bálint syndrome may result from multiple etiologies, it is principally diagnosed based on the presence of three symptoms: simultanagnosia, optic ataxia, and ocular apraxia. One of the most striking characteristics of Bálint syndrome, perfectly capturing the nature of this remarkable disorder, is that affected patients cannot perceive more than one object at a time or comprehend multiobject visual scenes due to a lack of ability to detect several objects concurrently and to grasp the spatial relationships between them. This chapter gives an overview of the cognitive mechanisms and neuroanatomy underlying Bálint syndrome, which provides key insights into our understanding of the role of parietal cortex in human attention, visual perception, and visuomotor control. This chapter also pays homage to Glyn Humphreys (1954-2016), who pioneered contributions to the knowledge about complexity of visual and spatial deficits associated with Bálint syndrome.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome: A Historical and Medical Review.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a disorienting neurological condition that affects human perception to the senses of vision, hearing, touch, sensation, and the phenomenon of time. Individuals affected with Alice in Wonderland syndrome can experience alterations in their perception of the size of objects or their own body parts, known as metamorphopsias. It is known to occur in conditions including migraine, epilepsy, and certain intoxicants and infectious diseases. The name refers to Lewis Carrol's well-known children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which the title character experiences alterations of sensation in which she felt that her body had grown too tall or too small, or parts of her body were changing shape, size, or relationship to the rest of her body. The syndrome was described in 1952 by Caro Lippman, and given its name in 1955 by John Todd. The metamorphopsias characteristic of this condition are also sometimes referred to as Lilliputian hallucinations, a reference to the fictional island of Lilliput in the novel Gulliver's Travels, written by Jonathan Swift in 1726. As such, many literary and medical publications have roots in the description of this syndrome. The purpose of this review is to summarize the literary and historical significance of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, as well as to provide the reader with a medical overview of the condition.

Elaboration of the Visual Pathways from the Study of War-Related Cranial Injuries: The Period from the Russo-Japanese War to World War I.

As a result of the wars in the early 20th century, elaboration of the visual pathways was greatly facilitated by the meticulous study of visual defects in soldiers who had suffered focal injuries to the visual cortex. Using relatively crude techniques, often under difficult wartime circumstances, investigators successfully mapped key features of the visual pathways. Studies during the Russo- Japanese War (1904-1905) by Tatsuji Inouye (1881-1976) and during World War I by Gordon Holmes (1876-1965), William Lister (1868-1944), and others produced increasingly refined retinotopic maps of the primary visual cortex, which were later supported and refined by studies during and after World War II. Studies by George Riddoch (1888-1947) during World War I also demonstrated that some patients could still perceive motion despite blindness caused by damage to their visual cortex and helped to establish the concept of functional partitioning of visual processes in the occipital cortex.

[Wilhelm Uhthoff (1853-1927)--important contributor of world neuro-ophthalmology]. / Wilhelm Uhthoff (1853-1927)--wazny wspóltwórca swiatowej neurookulistyki.

The reversible blurred vision occurring in patients with multiple sclerosis after a strenuous physical exercise is known as Uhthoff's phenomenon. Wilhelm Uhthoff was a German ophthalmologist, especially interested in neurology. He was a clinician and a devoted researcher--he observed many ophthalmic and neurological symptoms in his numerous patient cohorts, which he reported in many published research papers. His research contributed significantly to the development of neuro-ophthalmology.

Dr. Airy's "morbid affection of the eyesight": lessons from Teichopsia Circa 1870.

Hubert Airy's iconic drawing of his own migraine visual aura for which he coined the term, "teichopsia," conveys important lessons for the contemporary clinician. His observations of the expansion ("build-up"), minification/magnification, and color/achromatopsia of migrainous teichopsia are consistent with (and possibly anticipatory of) the later discoveries of cortical spreading depression, cortical magnification of primary visual cortex (V1), and specialized cortical centers for color vision.

Preterm-associated visual impairment and estimates of retinopathy of prematurity at regional and global levels for 2010.

BACKGROUND: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of potentially avoidable childhood blindness worldwide. We estimated ROP burden at the global and regional levels to inform screening and treatment programs, research, and data priorities. METHODS: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were undertaken to estimate the risk of ROP and subsequent visual impairment for surviving preterm babies by level of neonatal care, access to ROP screening, and treatment. A compartmental model was used to estimate ROP cases and numbers of visually impaired survivors. RESULTS: In 2010, an estimated 184,700 (uncertainty range: 169,600-214,500) preterm babies developed any stage of ROP, 20,000 (15,500-27,200) of whom became blind or severely visually impaired from ROP, and a further 12,300 (8,300-18,400) developed mild/moderate visual impairment. Sixty-five percent of those visually impaired from ROP were born in middle-income regions; 6.2% (4.3-8.9%) of all ROP visually impaired infants were born at >32-wk gestation. Visual impairment from other conditions associated with preterm birth will affect larger numbers of survivors. CONCLUSION: Improved care, including oxygen delivery and monitoring, for preterm babies in all facility settings would reduce the number of babies affected with ROP. Improved data tracking and coverage of locally adapted screening/treatment programs are urgently required.

An eye chart for Edgar Degas.

The French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas had progressive visual loss from a type of maculopathy during the last 40 years of his life. The effects of this visual failure are evident in a comparison of early and later pastels, which shows a loss of precision in outlining, shading, and detail over the years. A remarkable oil painting, Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey, provides on one canvas an historical record of his visual struggles. It was begun in 1866 and reworked in 1880 and 1897, during which his visual acuity fell from near normal to 20/200. Computer simulations show Degas' own view of this painting at each of these times and demonstrate how his style changed: details became rougher and larger in correspondence with his failing acuity. The painting is an eye chart of his career.