title: Vision after early-onset lesions of the occipital cortex: I. Neuropsychological and psychophysical studies.
abstract: We analyzed the visual functions of two patients (MS, FJ) with bilateral lesion of the primary visual cortex, which occurred at gestational age 33 wk in MS and at postnatal month 7 in FJ. In both patients basic visual functions--visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, color, form, motion perception-are similarly preserved or modestly impaired. Functions requiring higher visual processing, particularly figure-ground segregation based on textural cues, are severely impaired. In MS, studied longitudinally, the deficits attenuated between the ages of 4.5 and 8 y, suggesting that the developing visual system can display a considerable degree of adaptive plasticity several years after the occurrence of a lesion. In FJ (age 18:9 to 20:6 y), who is more impaired, the recovery, if any, was less.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Cellulaire et de Morphologie, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kiper
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zesiger
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maeder
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deonna
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Innocenti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D000377:Agnosia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011601:Psychophysics; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields