THE VANISHING OF THE SUN - A MANIFESTATION OF CORTICAL PLASTICITY

In Monet's painting Impression. Rising Sun, when one steadily fixates the image of a sailor in the center of the picture for several seconds , the solar disk progressively disappears, being replaced in both brig htness and color by tile surrounding sky. This ''filling-in'' phenomen on reflects a process of cortical remapping, similar to the one that o ccurs in the presence of visual field defects. Filling-in is largely i gnored by clinicians, despite its major implications in ophthalmologic practice, especially the nonrecognition of visual field deficits. (C) 1998 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.).