The vanishing of the sun: a manifestation of cortical plasticity.
In Monet's painting impression. Rising Sun, when one steadily fixates the image of a sailor in the center of the picture for several seconds, the solar disk progressively disappears, being replaced in both brightness and color by the surrounding sky. This "filling-in" phenomenon reflects a process of cortical remapping, similar to the one that occurs in the presence of visual field defects. Filling-in is largely ignored by clinicians, despite its major implications in ophthalmologic practice, especially the nonrecognition of visual field deficits.
Safran
A B
AB
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland.
Landis
T
T
D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010151:Paintings; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology