Eyeball movements in homonymous hemianopia following simultaneous bitemporal object presentation

IN THE PRESENCE OF acute homonymous hemianopic defects it was observed that when visual stimuli were simultaneously applied to each temporal field the eyeballs strongly and fixedly deviated into the normal field of vision. This phenomenon occurred irrespective of the causative pathology and even when the patients showed evidence of impaired volitional responsiveness. The comparative sizes of the objects were not decisive; a small coin in the uninvolved side completely obliterated a large book applied to the involved side. In fact, just going through the motion of presenting two objects often resulted in a searching deviation of the eyes into the normal field.