mercoledì 17 marzo 2010

Alice in Wonderland syndrome


I actually think i can suffer of it...But only on odd days.



The name “Alice in Wonderland” syndrome was coined by Todd in 1955 to describe the phenomena of micro- or macrosomatognosia, i.e. altered perceptions of body image,which had first been described by Lippman in the context of migraine some years earlier. It has subsequently been suggested that Dodgson’s own experience of migraine, recorded in his diaries, may have given rise to his descriptions of Alice’s changes in body form, so graphically illustrated in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Sir John Tenniel. These have been interpreted as somesthetic migrainous auras. However, Blau has challenged this interpretation on chronological grounds, finding no evidence in Dodgson’s diaries for the onset of migraine until after he had written the Alice books. Moreover, migraine with somatosensory features is rare,and the diaries have no report of migraine- associated body image hallucinations. Podoll & Robinson have discovered an earlier drawing by Dodgson suggesting that he did in fact suffer migraine aura symptoms before writing the Alice books, but the illustration suggests a right paracentral negative scotoma rather than micro- or macrosomatognosia.

Other conditions may also give rise to the phenomena of micro- or macrosomatognosia, including epilepsy, encephalitis, cerebral mass lesions, schizophrenia, and drug intoxication. It may be speculated that the latter is relevant to Alice since her experiences occur after drinking

from a phial (“DRINK ME”) and after eating cake (“EAT ME”).


Andrew Larner is the editor of

our Book Review Section.He is

a Consultant Neurologist at the

Walton Centre for Neurology

and Neurosurgery in Liverpool,

with a particular interest in

dementia and cognitive disor-

ders.


The pdf of the entire article: http://www.acnr.co.uk/pdfs/volume4issue6/v4i6history.pdf

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