Symptoms of Akinetopsia Associated with Traumatic Brain Injury and Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Objective: To describe two patients with symptoms of cerebral akinetopsia (or loss of motion vision) associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease. Background: Symptomatic cerebral akinetopsia is defined as the conscious loss of visual motion perception due to extrastriate cortical lesions. There are only two previous clinical reports of symptomatic cerebral akinetopsia. Methods: Clinical evaluations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were conducted on two patients who presented for neuro-ophthalmic consultation with complaints of loss of motion vision in the setting TBI and Alzheimer's disease. Results: Both patients reported an inability to perceive visual motion, with otherwise normal afferent visual function. Each had evidence for bilateral posterior cortical injury, with sparing of the striate cortex. Conclusions: These cases provide additional clinical evidence that damage to bilateral, extrastriate visual cortex can produce symptoms of motion blindness, and they provide the first descriptions of symptoms of cerebral akinetopsia associated with TBI and Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, they demonstrate that bilateral dysfunction may be necessary for symptoms of motion blindness.

KEYWORDS:

• Akinetopsia
• Alzheimer's
• motion
• traumatic brain injury
• visual cortex