The persistence of visual or auditory percepts as symptoms of irritative lesions of the cerebrum of man

Summary In this series of patients the persisting visual or auditory percepts were re-experienced immediately or were replayed many hours or even up to a day or more following the original stimulus. The persisting percepts were almost always experienced in the defective visual or auditory space contralateral to the responsible cerebral lesion. These patients usually had clinical evidence of cerebral irritation and seizures. When clinical seizures were controlled medically and stopped, so then did the persistent visual and auditory sensations. These spontaneous phenomena which we observed clinically were similar to the experiences elicited when the cerebrum of conscious man was stimulated through implanted electrodes. It seems that either spontaneous irritation of the brain or electrical excitation of the cerebrum of conscious man may induce replays of previous visual or auditory percepts which then appear as reality.This paper was read at the twenty fifth International Physiological Association Meetings, Satellite Symposium: Audition and Vision, Comparison between the Systems, August 3, 1971.