ANTONBABINSKI SYNDROME

Anton-Babinski syndrome: translation

   Also known as Anton's syndrome, Anton's symptom, Anton's blindness, anosognosia for blindness, denial of blindness, and visual anosognosia. The eponym Anton-Babinski syndrome refers to the Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist Gabriel Anton (1858-1933) and the Polish-French neurologist Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski (1857-1932). It is used to denote a subtype of "anosognosia first described by Anton in 1899, characterized by a denial of " blindness in individuals with partial or total blindness. Individuals suffering from the Anton-Babinski syndrome typically act as if they can see. They tend to confabulate about their environment and about the reason why they have difficulty in handling objects, collide with pieces of furniture, bump into walls, and experience difficulty in finding their way around.Originally described in individuals with bilateral lesions of the occipital cortex, the eponym Anton-Babinski syndrome also applies to the denial of the condition in individuals with other types of blindness. Incidentally, it has been described in individuals with " hemianopia as well. The mediation of the Anton-Babinski syndrome is attributed to a combination of partial or total blindness, anosognosia, imaginary visual experiences, and "visual hallucinations. It has been suggested that the syndrome's neurophysiological substrate may be similar to that of other types of anosognosia. The term transient Anton's syndrome is used for temporary cases of denial of blindness. A condition reminiscent of the Anton-Babinski syndrome, in which individuals with eyeball enucleations are temporarily under the impression that they can see with their absent eye, is known as " phantom vision.

   References

   Anton, G. (1899). Ueber die Selbstwahrnehmung der Herderkrankungen des Gehirns durch den Kranken bei Rindenblindheit und Rindentaubheit. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 32, 86-127.

   McDaniel, K.D., McDaniel, L.D. (1991).

   Anton's syndrome in a patient with post-traumatic optic neuropathy and bifrontal contusions. Archives of Neurology, 48, 101-105.