AKINETOPSIA IN THE POSTERIOR CORTICAL VARIANT OF ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Abstract

Akinetopsia is a rare condition in which patients cannot perceive motion.1 Akinetopsia has occurred from bilateral cortical lesions involving the temporo-parieto-occipital junction.1,2 This report describes 2 patients with akinetopsia from neurodegenerative disease. They had double vision, and proved to have directional akinetopsia with persistence of successive stills from moving images as part of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) or visual variant Alzheimer disease (AD).3,4 ### Case reports. #### Case 1. A 71-year-old right-handed woman had a 3-year progressive decline in the ability to visually localize objects. She could not find objects in her home, on countertops, in her wallet, or if dropped. She also had double vision. Leftward moving objects were perceived as 2 or more successive images occurring side by side. She did not have polyopsia on viewing static objects or on moving her eyes. The patient also had a decline in recent memory, numerical ability, and instrumental activities of daily living. Past medical history included recent cataract surgery in an attempt to fix her visual problems, and her medications were donepezil and memantine. On examination, she scored 21/30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Language was fluent with good auditory comprehension, repetition, and naming. On a verbal learning task, the patient recalled 0/10 words after a …