title: Braille alexia during visual hallucination in a blind man with selective calcarine atrophy.
abstract: The case of a 56-year-old man who has been blind for 25 years due to retinal degeneration is herein described. The patient complained of elementary visual hallucination, during which it was difficult for him to read Braille. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed marked atrophy of the bilateral striate cortex. Visual hallucination as a release phenomenon of the primary visual cortex has never been reported to cause alexia for Braille. The present case supports the results of recent functional imaging studies of the recruitment of striate and prestriate cortex for Braille reading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Horikawa Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haneda
authors.forename: Atsunori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
mesh_terms: D001284:Atrophy; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011932:Reading; D012174:Retinitis Pigmentosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012682:Sensory Aids; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*