Updated February 06, 2013.

Question: What is Anton Syndrome?

Answer:

Anton syndrome syndrome is a peculiar symptom of an occipital stroke, or other forms of brain damage in that area. It causes complete blindness.

After the injury to the occipital lobe, the person acts as though he/she is not actually blind. If you were to place a spoon in front of their eyes and ask them to choose whether what you are holding is a spoon, a pen, or a watch, they would answer confidently with a guess and act as though that was the correct answer, even if they are wrong.

If you ask them to describe what they are seeing, they will make up a whole visual scenario for you.

They even try to walk as though they were not blind and end up colliding with objects in their path. What is really interesting is that they are not lying to you. Their brain is simply unable to figure out that they are blind. This a form of anosagnosia referred to as “visual anosagnosia,” or the inability to realize that one’s vision is affected due to brain injury.

_Source:

Allan Ropper and Robert Brown, Adam's and Victor's Principles of Neurology, 8th Edition McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, United States of America, 2005, pp 417-430.