The Zeitraffer Phenomenon: A Strategic Ischemic Infarct of the Banks of the Parieto-Occipital Sulcus - A Unique Case Report and a Side Note on the Neuroanatomy of Visual Perception

We describe the remarkable case of a medically healthy right-handed 15-year-old boy who developed an ischemic infarct of the banks of the right parieto-occipital sulcus (POs). The etiology of this infarct was undetermined, that is, cryptogenic. However, the focus of this article is functional neuroanatomy, as our patient developed a specific entity; an optic flow motion deficit characterized by slow self-motion of the left half of his body (egomotion) and slow motion of the surroundings (allocentric motion) together constituting the Zeitraffer phenomenon. We describe the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the dorsal visual stream and correlate the localization of this type of infarct in our patient with the known functional neuroanatomy. Although lesional studies in Macaque monkeys and functional MRI studies in humans have documented the clinical-functional correlations of POs lesions and perceived motion deficits, our case is one of the very first human cases in the literature that pinpoints the Zeitraffer phenomenon to a specific and strategic circumscribed ischemic stroke in the region of the POs.