Akinetopsia
Rare disorder causing inability to perceive visual motion.
Last updated
Akinetopsia is a rare neuropsychological disorder in which a patient cannot perceive motion in their visual field, despite seeing stationary objects normally.[1] Damage to the V5 visual area, which contains directionally selective motion-detecting neurons, is what causes the condition.[1] The severity of akinetopsia ranges widely, from a perception of motion resembling a cinematic film strip to a complete inability to perceive any movement whatsoever.[1]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Neuropsychological disorder
- Also known as
- Cerebral akinetopsia, motion blindness
- Cause
- Damage to visual area V5
- Severity spectrum
- Inconspicuous to gross akinetopsia
- Documented cases
- Handful of medical cases
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The syndrome is also known as cerebral akinetopsia or motion blindness.[1] Gross akinetopsia is an extremely rare condition where patients have profound motion blindness and struggle with daily activities.[2] Most of what is known about gross akinetopsia was learned through the case study of one patient, LM.[2] LM described pouring a cup of tea as difficult "because the fluid appeared to be frozen, like a glacier"[2]
In 1918, Goldstein and Gelb reported a patient who saw "nothing in between" the new position of an object.[3] The severity of akinetopsia exists on a continuum, and in certain instances the condition may be episodic or transient.[4] Patients with inconspicuous akinetopsia frequently characterize their visual experience of motion as similar to a movie reel or a photograph with multiple exposures.[5] A 1911 report by Potzl and Redlich documented a patient who perceived motion as a stationary object that simply reappeared at different sequential locations.[3]
Elevated doses of particular antidepressant medications can induce inconspicuous akinetopsia, and normal vision returns after the dosage is lowered.[6]
What the cited sources add
The 2020 Taylor & Francis Group publication "Famous Case Histories in Neurotrauma" is referenced by Wikipedia for details on akinetopsia's signs and symptoms.[7][4]
References
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blom, "A Dictionary of Hallucinations", Springer Science & Business Media, 2009-12-08, p. 10; "Cerebral akinetopsia (visual motion blindness). A review", Brain, April 1991, p. 811–24; Dubner, "Response properties and receptive fields of cells in an anatomically defined region of the superior temporal sulcus in the monkey", Brain Research, 1971-12-24, p. 528–532; Zeki, "Functional organization of a visual area in the posterior bank of the superior temporal sulcus of the rhesus monkey", The Journal of Physiology, 1974-02-01, p. 549–573; "Neur en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Selective disturbance of movement vision after bilateral brain damage", Brain, June 1983, p. 313–40 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cerebral akinetopsia (visual motion blindness). A review", Brain, April 1991, p. 811–24 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Matyas, "Famous Case Histories in Neurotrauma: What neuroscience continues to learn from survivors", Routledge, 2020-09-08 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Palinopsia revamped: a systematic review of the literature", Surv Ophthalmol, 2015, p. 1–35; "Neuronal mechanisms of visual stability", Vision Res., September 2008, p. 2070–89 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Akinetopsia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pinel, "Biopsychology", Allyn & Bacon, 2011, p. 160 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Open Library record, ISBN 9781000172928 ("Famous Case Histories in Neurotrauma"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Akinetopsia (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Akinetopsia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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