Unusual Spontaneous and Training-Induced Visual Field Recovery in a Patient with a Gunshot Lesion

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In the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, authors D.A. Poggel, E. Kasten, E. Müller-Oehring, B.A. Sabel and S.A. Brandt consider the unusual case of a 29-year-old man with no history of neurological disease who suffered a cerebral gunshot lesion. Though completely blind at first, the patient experienced a recovery of surprising extent and duration—first recovering visual function through spontaneous recovery, then showing considerable further progress with visual restitution therapy (Vision Restoration Therapy).

By examining the patient over three years, doctors Poggel et. al. were able to show that spontaneous as well as training-induced improvement take place in the area of residual vision and that both processes seem to be based on a common mechanism—the modulation of perceptual thresholds in partially defective areas.