Anjali, 61, was a painter who began confusing colors—sky blue with grey, green with yellow. She said her canvas no longer “felt right.” Her vision was 20/20, pupils were reactive, but she couldn’t name colors or recognize familiar faces.

MRI showed bilateral occipitotemporal lobe atrophy—posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a rare variant of Alzheimer’s. Her visual cortex was intact, but her brain no longer made sense of what she saw. She stopped painting, but started writing poetry.

“She found new ways to express what she couldn’t see,” her daughter said.

“She found new ways to express what she couldn’t see,” her daughter said.

The Lesson Learned

A normal eye exam doesn’t mean normal visual perception. Visual symptoms with cognitive overtones often point to cortical disorders—don’t stop at the retina.

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