From Cortical Blindness to Conscious Visual Perception: Theories on Neuronal Networks and Visual Training Strategies.
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience January 1, 2017 Vanessa Hadid, Franco Lepore
Homonymous hemianopia (HH), the most common cortical visual impairment causing blindness in half the visual field, disrupts daily activities like exploration and orientation. Patients can retain blindsight—unconscious perception of stimuli in the blind field. This article argues that type I and type II blindsight arise from an altered global workspace due to disrupted perception, attention, and conscious networks. To enable residual abilities to reach visual consciousness, rehabilitation should stimulate subcortical extrastriate pathways via V5/MT to enhance neural synchronization. Combining multisensory bottom-up compensation with top-down restitution training could engage existing and new neuronal mechanisms, potentially restoring functionality.