Anatomical correlate of positive spontaneous visual phenomena: a voxelwise lesion study.

Objectives: Visual phenomena such as phosphenes, photopsias, or complex visual hallucinations occur in patients with lesions affecting the occipital, parietal, or temporal lobe. Whether these phenomena are provoked by lesions in specific anatomical regions is still uncertain. To determine which brain regions might be involved in such visual phenomena, we used new brain imaging and lesion analysis tools that allow a direct comparison with control patients. Methods: Visual phenomena were investigated in a total of 23 patients with acute infarctions along the visual pathways (6 patients with left-sided and 17 patients with right-sided lesions). Results: Ten of these 23 patients (43%) reported …