Achromatopsy in the Works of Oliver Sacks
Abstract Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) has been one for the most prominent authors in scientific popularizing of neurology. His works stimulated the interest of public in this field, but Sacks’s contribution in the relationship between neurology and ophthalmology is not so well known. In this paper, we analyze his works regarding achromatopsia, a disorder of retinal cones that produces a black and white vision. Sacks analyzed several types, as transient achromatopsia, which appears in migraine aura, but the most interesting were those linked to congenital and acquired achromatopsia. The first was studied in the population of Pingelap, an island in Micronesia, and explained in The island of the colorblind (1996), whereas the second was reported in The case of colorblind painter (1995). In both works, Sacks described not only the pure medical aspects of the disorder, but considered in full its psychological and anthropological consequences. Reading these tales allows us to understand how chromatically limited vision affected, or not, their personal and social life.
- Referencias
- Cómo citar
- Del mismo autor
- Métricas
Anónimo. Interview with Charlie Rose. February 1995. En: The last interview and other conversations. Brooklyn and London: Melville House; 2016. p. 15-34.
Barris M. The island of the colorblind. Optometry Vision Sci. 1997;74(3):125. Disponible en: https://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Citation/1997/03000/The_Island_of_the_Colorblind.2.aspx
Brawarsky S. Street neurologist with a sense of wonder. Lancet. 1997;350(9084):1092-3. Disponible en: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(97)08503-6.pdf
Broyard A. Good books about being sick. New York Times. 1990 April Disponible en: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/01/books/good-books-abut-being-sick.html
Cole BL. Colour blindness does not preclude fame as an artist: celebrated Australian artist Clifton Pugh was a protanope. Clin Exp Optometry. 2009;92(5):421-8. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1444-0938.2009.00384.x
Carvalho LS, Vandenberghe LH. Understanding cone photoreceptor cell death in achromatopsia. En: Rickan CB, LaVail MM, Anderson RE, Grimm C, Hollyfield J, Ash J. editores. Retinal degenerative diseases. Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 854. Springer International Pub Switzerland; 2016. p. 231-6.
Escarcena P, Guardiola E, Baños JE. Oliver Sacks: els neurorelats o la neurologia integral. Ann Med. 2014;97(2):89-96. Disponible en: http://www.raco.cat/index.php/AnnalsMedicina/article/viewFile/283424/371346
Guardiola E, Baños JE. Oliver Sacks y la neurología literaria. Rev Neurol. 2014;58(6):277-83. Disponible en: https://cdn-61ba.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Oliver-Sacks-y-las-neurociencias-literarias.pdf
Guardiola E, Loscos J, Baños JE. Neurooftalmología en la obra de Oliver Sacks: las auras visuales. Rev Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2015;90(6):e47-e49.
Hachinski VC, Porchawka J, Steele JC. Visual symptoms in the migraine syndrome. Neurology. 1973;23(6):570-9.
Harrison J. Synaesthesia: The strangest thing. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2001.
Hassall MM, Barnard AR, MacLaren RE. Gene therapy for color blindness. Yale J Biol Med. 2017;90(4):543-51. Disponible en: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5733843/pdf/yjbm_90_4_543.pdf
Hull AJ. Fictional father? Oliver Sacks and the revalidation of pathography. Med Humanit. 2013;39(2):105-14.
Ione A, Tyler C. Synesthesia: is F-sharp colored violet. J Hist Neurosci. 2004;13(1):58-65. Disponible en: http://www.daysyn.com/IoneTyler2004.pdf
Iranzo Amatriain JM. “Toda enfermedad es un problema musical, toda cura es una solución musical” (Movalis). Una mirada sociológica a la obra de Sacks. Intersticios: Revista Sociológica de Pensamiento Crítico. 2011;5(2):333-56. Disponible en: http://www.intersticios.es/article/view/8571/6263
Iribas Rudín A. Color y experiencia, lenguaje y arte. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad. 2007;19:219-46. Disponible en: http://www.academia.edu/10278635/Color_y_experiencia_lenguaje_y_arte
Jurecic A, Marchalik D. The literary legacy of Oliver Sacks. Lancet. 2016(10021);387:835. Disponible en: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)00513-4.pdf
Kerr L. Always the same story: Familiar narrative structures in Oliver Sacks and Nancy Mairs. Fam Med. 2010;42(2):97-9. http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2010/February/Lisa97.pdf
Klee A, Willanger R. Disturbances of visual perception in migraine. Acta Neurol Scand. 1966;42(4):400-14. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0404.1966.tb01192.x
Lanthony P. An eye for painting. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux; 2006.
Lawden MC, Cleland PG. Achromatopsia in the aura of migraine. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatr. 1993;56(6):708-9. Disponible en: http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC489627&blobtype=pdf
Meadows JC. Disturbed perception of colours associated with localized cerebral lesions. Brain. 1974;97(4):615-32. Disponible en: https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/131/8/1963/268669
Michaelides M, Hunt DM, Moore AT. The cone dysfunction syndromes. Br J Ophtalmol. 2004;88(2):291-7. Disponible en: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1771989/pdf/bjo08800291.pdf
Moore NA, Morral N, Ciulla TA, Bracha P. Gene therapy for inherited retinal and optic nerve degenerations. Exp Opinion Biol Ther. 2018;18 (1):37-49. Disponible en: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14712598.2018.1389886?needAccess=true
Münchow W. Color vision deficiencies in painting. En: Marré M, Marré E. editores. First Regional Symposium. International Research Group on Colour Vision Deficiencies. Dresden; 1978. Paper 26.
Rocha EM, Rocha LAS, Vasconcelos GC, Alves M. Oliver Sacks and his legacy to vision science and ophthalmology. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2016;79(2):V-VI. Disponible en: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/abo/v79n1/0004-2749-abo-79-01-000V.pdf
Sacks O. An anthropologist on Mars. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 1995 [existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2006].
Sacks O. Seeing voices: a journey into the deaf. Berkeley: University of California; 1989 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik en 1991].
Sacks O. The mind’s eye. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2010 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2011].
Sacks O. Awakenings. Londres: Duckworth; 1973 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik en 1988].
Sacks O. The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1985. [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik, 1987].
Sacks O. The island of the colour blind and Cycad island. Londres: Picador; 1996 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Francesc Roca publicada por Anagrama en 1999].
Sacks O. A leg to stand on. Londres: Duckworth; 1984 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Anagrama, 1998].
Sacks O. Gratitude. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2015 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2016].
Sacks O. Uncle Tungsten: memories of a chemical boyhood. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2001 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2003].
Sacks O. On the move. A life. Londres: Picador; 2015 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damià Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2015].
Sacks O. Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2007 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2015].
Sacks O. Hallucinations. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2012 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2013].
Sacks O. Migraine. Nueva York: Faber and Faber; 1970 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou y Gustavo Dessal publicada por Anagrama en 1997].
Sacks O. Migraine. Revised and expanded. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1992.
Sacks O. The river of consciousness. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2017.
Sacks O, Wasserman R. The case of the colorblind painter. The New York Review of Books. 1987;34(18). Disponible en: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1987/11/19/the-case-of-the-colorblind-painter/
Schankin CJ, Viana M, Goadsby PJ. Persistent and repetitive visual disturbances in migraine: A review. Headache. 2017;57(1):1-16. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/head.12946
Sengillo JD, Justus S, Tsai YT, Cabral T, Tsang SH. Gene and cell-based therapies for inherited retinal disorders: an update. Am J Med Genetics Part C (Seminars in Medical Genetics). 2016;172C (4):349-66. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.c.31534
Sheffield VC. The vision of Typhoon Lengkieki. Nat Med. 2000;6(7):746-7. Disponible en: http://www.nature.com/articles/nm0700_746.pdf
Simunovic MP. Acquired color vision deficiency. Survey Ophthalmol. 2016;61(2):132-55. Disponible en: https://www.surveyophthalmol.com/article/S0039-6257(15)00193-9/pdf
Wasserstein AG. Toward a romantic science: the work of Oliver Sacks. Ann Int Med. 1988;109(5):440-4.
Wissinger B, Sharpe L. New aspects of an old theme: The genetic basis of human color vision. Am J Hum Genet. 1998;63(5):1257-62. Disponible en: http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC1377535&blobtype=pdf
Zeki S. A century of cerebral achromatopsia. Brain. 1990;113(6):1721-77. Disponible en: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8524/f75b7ab4eecb30582ff92361ccc475ed7155.pdf
Zobor D, Zobor G, Kohl S. Achromatopsia: on the doorstep of a possible therapy. Ophtalmic Res. 2015;54(2):103-8. Disponible en: https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/435957
Barris M. The island of the colorblind. Optometry Vision Sci. 1997;74(3):125. Disponible en: https://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Citation/1997/03000/The_Island_of_the_Colorblind.2.aspx
Brawarsky S. Street neurologist with a sense of wonder. Lancet. 1997;350(9084):1092-3. Disponible en: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(97)08503-6.pdf
Broyard A. Good books about being sick. New York Times. 1990 April Disponible en: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/01/books/good-books-abut-being-sick.html
Cole BL. Colour blindness does not preclude fame as an artist: celebrated Australian artist Clifton Pugh was a protanope. Clin Exp Optometry. 2009;92(5):421-8. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1444-0938.2009.00384.x
Carvalho LS, Vandenberghe LH. Understanding cone photoreceptor cell death in achromatopsia. En: Rickan CB, LaVail MM, Anderson RE, Grimm C, Hollyfield J, Ash J. editores. Retinal degenerative diseases. Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 854. Springer International Pub Switzerland; 2016. p. 231-6.
Escarcena P, Guardiola E, Baños JE. Oliver Sacks: els neurorelats o la neurologia integral. Ann Med. 2014;97(2):89-96. Disponible en: http://www.raco.cat/index.php/AnnalsMedicina/article/viewFile/283424/371346
Guardiola E, Baños JE. Oliver Sacks y la neurología literaria. Rev Neurol. 2014;58(6):277-83. Disponible en: https://cdn-61ba.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Oliver-Sacks-y-las-neurociencias-literarias.pdf
Guardiola E, Loscos J, Baños JE. Neurooftalmología en la obra de Oliver Sacks: las auras visuales. Rev Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2015;90(6):e47-e49.
Hachinski VC, Porchawka J, Steele JC. Visual symptoms in the migraine syndrome. Neurology. 1973;23(6):570-9.
Harrison J. Synaesthesia: The strangest thing. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2001.
Hassall MM, Barnard AR, MacLaren RE. Gene therapy for color blindness. Yale J Biol Med. 2017;90(4):543-51. Disponible en: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5733843/pdf/yjbm_90_4_543.pdf
Hull AJ. Fictional father? Oliver Sacks and the revalidation of pathography. Med Humanit. 2013;39(2):105-14.
Ione A, Tyler C. Synesthesia: is F-sharp colored violet. J Hist Neurosci. 2004;13(1):58-65. Disponible en: http://www.daysyn.com/IoneTyler2004.pdf
Iranzo Amatriain JM. “Toda enfermedad es un problema musical, toda cura es una solución musical” (Movalis). Una mirada sociológica a la obra de Sacks. Intersticios: Revista Sociológica de Pensamiento Crítico. 2011;5(2):333-56. Disponible en: http://www.intersticios.es/article/view/8571/6263
Iribas Rudín A. Color y experiencia, lenguaje y arte. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad. 2007;19:219-46. Disponible en: http://www.academia.edu/10278635/Color_y_experiencia_lenguaje_y_arte
Jurecic A, Marchalik D. The literary legacy of Oliver Sacks. Lancet. 2016(10021);387:835. Disponible en: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)00513-4.pdf
Kerr L. Always the same story: Familiar narrative structures in Oliver Sacks and Nancy Mairs. Fam Med. 2010;42(2):97-9. http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2010/February/Lisa97.pdf
Klee A, Willanger R. Disturbances of visual perception in migraine. Acta Neurol Scand. 1966;42(4):400-14. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0404.1966.tb01192.x
Lanthony P. An eye for painting. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux; 2006.
Lawden MC, Cleland PG. Achromatopsia in the aura of migraine. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatr. 1993;56(6):708-9. Disponible en: http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC489627&blobtype=pdf
Meadows JC. Disturbed perception of colours associated with localized cerebral lesions. Brain. 1974;97(4):615-32. Disponible en: https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/131/8/1963/268669
Michaelides M, Hunt DM, Moore AT. The cone dysfunction syndromes. Br J Ophtalmol. 2004;88(2):291-7. Disponible en: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1771989/pdf/bjo08800291.pdf
Moore NA, Morral N, Ciulla TA, Bracha P. Gene therapy for inherited retinal and optic nerve degenerations. Exp Opinion Biol Ther. 2018;18 (1):37-49. Disponible en: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14712598.2018.1389886?needAccess=true
Münchow W. Color vision deficiencies in painting. En: Marré M, Marré E. editores. First Regional Symposium. International Research Group on Colour Vision Deficiencies. Dresden; 1978. Paper 26.
Rocha EM, Rocha LAS, Vasconcelos GC, Alves M. Oliver Sacks and his legacy to vision science and ophthalmology. Arq Bras Oftalmol. 2016;79(2):V-VI. Disponible en: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/abo/v79n1/0004-2749-abo-79-01-000V.pdf
Sacks O. An anthropologist on Mars. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 1995 [existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2006].
Sacks O. Seeing voices: a journey into the deaf. Berkeley: University of California; 1989 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik en 1991].
Sacks O. The mind’s eye. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2010 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2011].
Sacks O. Awakenings. Londres: Duckworth; 1973 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik en 1988].
Sacks O. The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1985. [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Muchnik, 1987].
Sacks O. The island of the colour blind and Cycad island. Londres: Picador; 1996 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Francesc Roca publicada por Anagrama en 1999].
Sacks O. A leg to stand on. Londres: Duckworth; 1984 [Existe una traducción al castellano de José Manuel Álvarez Flórez publicada por Anagrama, 1998].
Sacks O. Gratitude. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2015 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2016].
Sacks O. Uncle Tungsten: memories of a chemical boyhood. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2001 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2003].
Sacks O. On the move. A life. Londres: Picador; 2015 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damià Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2015].
Sacks O. Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2007 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2015].
Sacks O. Hallucinations. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2012 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou publicada por Anagrama en 2013].
Sacks O. Migraine. Nueva York: Faber and Faber; 1970 [Existe una traducción al castellano de Damián Alou y Gustavo Dessal publicada por Anagrama en 1997].
Sacks O. Migraine. Revised and expanded. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1992.
Sacks O. The river of consciousness. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2017.
Sacks O, Wasserman R. The case of the colorblind painter. The New York Review of Books. 1987;34(18). Disponible en: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1987/11/19/the-case-of-the-colorblind-painter/
Schankin CJ, Viana M, Goadsby PJ. Persistent and repetitive visual disturbances in migraine: A review. Headache. 2017;57(1):1-16. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/head.12946
Sengillo JD, Justus S, Tsai YT, Cabral T, Tsang SH. Gene and cell-based therapies for inherited retinal disorders: an update. Am J Med Genetics Part C (Seminars in Medical Genetics). 2016;172C (4):349-66. Disponible en: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajmg.c.31534
Sheffield VC. The vision of Typhoon Lengkieki. Nat Med. 2000;6(7):746-7. Disponible en: http://www.nature.com/articles/nm0700_746.pdf
Simunovic MP. Acquired color vision deficiency. Survey Ophthalmol. 2016;61(2):132-55. Disponible en: https://www.surveyophthalmol.com/article/S0039-6257(15)00193-9/pdf
Wasserstein AG. Toward a romantic science: the work of Oliver Sacks. Ann Int Med. 1988;109(5):440-4.
Wissinger B, Sharpe L. New aspects of an old theme: The genetic basis of human color vision. Am J Hum Genet. 1998;63(5):1257-62. Disponible en: http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC1377535&blobtype=pdf
Zeki S. A century of cerebral achromatopsia. Brain. 1990;113(6):1721-77. Disponible en: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8524/f75b7ab4eecb30582ff92361ccc475ed7155.pdf
Zobor D, Zobor G, Kohl S. Achromatopsia: on the doorstep of a possible therapy. Ophtalmic Res. 2015;54(2):103-8. Disponible en: https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/435957
Casas, J., Guardiola, E., & Baños, J. E. (2018). Achromatopsy in the Works of Oliver Sacks. Journal of Medicine and Movies, 14(2), 123–133. Retrieved from https://revistas.usal.es/cinco/index.php/medicina_y_cine/article/view/18539
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Josep E Baños, Elena Guardiola, To read Tolstoy, does it make us better doctors? Reflexions on «The death of Ivan Ilich» , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 12 No. 3 (2016)
- Elena Guardiola, Josep E Baños, What if we prescribe art? The role of the arts in improving health and well-being , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 16 No. 3 (2020)
- Elena Guardiola, Josep E. Baños, Reading during the COVID-19 Pandemic , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 16 No. e (2020)
- Elena Guardiola, Josep E Baños, The role of medical humanities in the education of healthcare professionals in the twenty?first century , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 13 No. 4 (2017)
- Irene Cambra-Badii, Elena Guardiola, Josep-E. Baños, From Marcus Welby, M.D. to The resident: The changing portrayal of physicians in TV medical dramas , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 16 No. 2 (2020)
- Josep?E Baños, Elena Guardiola, What can medical students learn from literature? , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 12 No. 2 (2016)
- Elena Guardiola, Josep-E Baños, A book that is shut is but a block: what proverbs teach us , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 14 No. 4 (2018)
- Elena Guardiola, Josep E Baños, What happens when we read a book (and its effect on our life) , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 14 No. 1 (2018)
- Irene Cambra-Badii, Elena Guardiola, Josep-E Baños, Towards the complex horizon of medical humanities , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 17 No. 2 (2021)
- Josep? E Baños, Elena Guardiola, The interest of the works of Cervantes: The Quixot, beyond the madness? , Journal of Medicine and Movies: Vol. 12 No. 3 (2016)
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
+
−