Cortical Blindness

Cortical blindness (CB) is defined as loss of vision without any ophthalmological causes and with normal pupillary light reflexes due to bilateral lesions of the striate cortex in the occipital lobes. Cortical blindness is a part of cerebral blindness, defined as loss of vision secondary to damage to the visual pathways posterior to the lateral geniculate nuclei. Description of CB goes back to the Roman era. Roman philosopher and politician Seneca described a case of a slave who, despite her blindness, did not accept it and kept constantly arguing about room darkness. French writer Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) described a case where the patient, despite the obvious signs of blindness, did not believe he was blind. In 1895, Austrian neuropsychiatrist Gabriel Anton described patients with bilateral occipital lobe lesions who were completely blind but were unaware of their blindness leading to confabulation. It was later described as anosognosia by another renowned French neurologist Joseph François Babinski.