STUDIES ON THE CENTRAL VISUAL CONNECTIONS

Abstract

Until within a decade it could still be considered an open question whether the visual center was limited to a definite portion of the occipital lobe, and whether there existed a projection of the retinal quadrants on the corpus geniculatum and cortex. The affirmative of these two propositions, defended for forty years by Henschen¹ and his followers, such as Wilbrand² and Lenz,³ was for a long time vigorously attacked by the "decentralist" school, under the able leadership of von Monakow.⁴ But the experiments of Minkowski 5 in von Monakow's own laboratory appear to have reconciled the two schools, and the general conception of a definite anatomic projection of the retinal quadrants and the macular region on a sharply limited area of the occipital cortex is now generally admitted. Another question, which has been often asked and answered in various ways, is: What is the localization of