Abstract
Seven patient with low visual acuity displaying enhanced positive waves in retinal responses of normal shape and reduced or extinct visual evoked potentials were presented. None of these cases exhibited any sign of optic nerve affection and visual field defects nor any localizing neurological deficits. Conclusions drawn in an earlier report from similar electrophysiological findings but obtained in cases with optic nerve atrophy were applied here. On the basis of these findings, it is hypothesized that the enhanced ERG represents the result of an abolition of a physiological rivalry between the increasing retinal sensitivity in the dark and an inhibitory cerebral influence upon retinal activity exerted via efferent fibers in the optic nerve. The possible origins of this assumed negative feedback mechanism are discussed, though neither experimental facts nor speculation did provide a reasonable clue. An answer may be given by observing the patients during the following years and possibly by animal experiments.
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From the Department of Neurosurgery.
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Feinsod, M., Rowe, H. & Auerbach, E. Enhanced retinal responses without signs of optic nerve involvement. Doc Ophthalmol 29, 201–211 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02456521
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02456521