VISUAL HALLUCINATIONS AND THEIR NEURO-OPTICAL CORRELATES

Abstract

Visual hallucinations appear so frequently in association with both mental and organic disease of the nervous system that it seems curious they have come to be regarded as possessing considerable localizing importance in the diagnosis of tumors of the brain. Indeed, modern textbooks of neurology state that it is possible to make a differential diagnosis between lesions of the temporal lobe and of the occipital lobe on the character of the visual experiences. Jelliffe and White¹ (1935) declared that formed and crude hallucinations appear in association with lesions of the temporal and of the occipital lobe respectively. Brain² (1933) in his textbook stated that visual hallucinations accompanying lesions of the temporal lobe are more highly organized than those due to lesions of the occipital lobe. Brain and Strauss³ (1934), Wechsler⁴ (1935), Grinker⁵ (1934) and Purves-Stewart⁶ (1937) in their textbooks uniformly stated that the visual