"...(one patient) adamantly denied any visual problems, often complaining that the light was poor in the room, that he did not have his best pair of glasses with him, or that it was nighttime." - William Hirstein

Overview

Anton's Syndrome is a form of anosognosia in which a patient does not realize that they are blind, and uses confabulation to explain away their lack of sight. This involves inventing visual cues when there are none, accounting for their vision loss as the effects of fatigue, or claiming that there is not enough light to see. Known variously as Anton's Blindness or Anton-Babinski syndrome.

Cause

Anton's syndrome most often results from bilateral lesions of the occipital cortex, the site of visual processing; some cases have resulted from blunt force trauma to the head. It was first described by Czech neurologist Gabriel Anton, who wrote about it in 1899.

Sources:

Archives of Neurology
Wrong Diagnosis: Anton's Syndrome
Indian Journal of Ophthalmology
Hirstein, William. Brain Fiction: Self-deception and the Riddle of Confabulation MIT Press, 2005, pg. 12.

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