Hiding in plain sight: a closer look at posterior cortical atrophy
Authors:
Open Access
- 12 September 2014
- journal article
- case report
- Published by BMJ in Practical Neurology
- Vol. 15 (1) , 5-13
Abstract
Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome dominated by deterioration of higher visual function (particularly visuospatial and visuoperceptual abilities). It is most commonly due to Alzheimer's disease pathology, but may also be caused by dementia with Lewy bodies, corticobasal degeneration or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Patients often present to optometrists, ophthalmologists and/or neurologists with non-specific visual complaints, and unless clinicians seek the specific symptoms and signs of PCA (beyond that of the ‘standard’ neurological examination), this infrequent disorder is easily missed, delaying its diagnosis and treatment. We review the clinical features of PCA, focusing on its visual manifestations, to help neurologists recognise this important syndrome.Keywords
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- Posterior cortical atrophy: visuomotor deficits in reaching and graspingFrontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013
- A world unglued: simultanagnosia as a spatial restriction of attentionFrontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013
- Complex Visual Manifestations of Posterior Cortical AtrophyJournal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, 2012
- Foveal crowding in posterior cortical atrophy: A specific early-visual-processing deficit affecting word readingCognitive Neuropsychology, 2007
- Imaging correlates of posterior cortical atrophyNeurobiology of Aging, 2007
- Seeing trees OR seeing forests in simultanagnosia: Attentional capture can be local or globalNeuropsychologia, 2007
- Complex visual hallucination and mirror sign in posterior cortical atrophyActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2006
- Restricted ocular exploration does not seem to explain simultanagnosiaNeuropsychologia, 2006
- A disorder of colour perception associated with abnormal colour after-images: a defect of the primary visual cortexJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2001
- Posterior cortical atrophy: Unusual feature of alzheimer's diseaseNeurocase, 1996