Brain (1998), 121, 1819–1840 REVIEW ARTICLE Complex visual hallucinations Clinical and neurobiological insights M. Manford1 and F. Andermann2 1Department of Clinical Neurology, Addenbrooke’s Correspondence to: Dr M. Manford, Department of Hospital, Cambridge, UK and 2Montreal Neurological Clinical Neurology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Institute, Montreal, Canada Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK. E-mail:
[email protected] Summary Complex visual hallucinations may affect some normal hallucinations are probably due to a direct irritative individuals on going to sleep and are also seen in process acting on cortical centres integrating complex pathological states, often in association with a sleep visual information. (ii) Visual pathway lesions cause disturbance. The content of these hallucinations is defective visual input and may result in hallucinations striking and relatively stereotyped, often involving from defective visual processing or an abnormal cortical animals and human figures in bright colours and release phenomenon. (iii) Brainstem lesions appear to dramatic settings. Conditions causing these affect ascending cholinergic and serotonergic pathways, hallucinations include narcolepsy–cataplexy syndrome, and may also be implicated in Parkinson’s disease. peduncular hallucinosis, treated idiopathic Parkinson’s These brainstem abnormalities are often associated with disease, Lewy body dementia without treatment, disturbances of sleep. We discuss how these lesions, migraine coma, Charles Bonnet syndrome (visual outside the primary visual system, may cause defective hallucinations of the blind), schizophrenia, hallucinogen- modulation of thalamocortical relationships leading to induced states and epilepsy. We describe cases of a release phenomenon. We suggest that perturbation of hallucinosis due to several of these causes and expand a distributed matrix may explain the production of on previous hypotheses to suggest three mechanisms similar, complex mental phenomena by relatively blunt underlying complex visual hallucinations.