Case Report of Vestibularly evoked Visual Hallucinations in a Patient with Cortical Blindness

Abstract

Previous work has shown that caloric vestibular stimulation may evoke elementary visual hallucinations in healthy humans, such as different colored lines or dots. Surprisingly, the present case report reveals that the same stimulation can evoke visual hallucinations in a patient with cortical blindness, but with fundamentally different characteristics. The visual hallucinations evoked were complex and came from daily life experiences. Moreover, they did not include other senses beyond vision. This case report suggests that in conditions of cerebral pathology, vestibular-visual interaction may stimulate hallucinogenic subcortical, or undamaged cortical structures, and arouse mechanisms that can generate visual images exclusively.