Patient M: The man who was shot in the head and woke up seeing the world backwards

[Still Waters]

A newly published study has rediscovered one of the most singular and strange cases of brain injury in history: the case of Patient M, who, having been shot in the head in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, woke up seeing the world backwards.

People and objects appeared to Patient M to be coming from the opposite side to where they actually were, something that extended to his hearing and sense of touch too.

He could read letters and numbers printed both normally and back-to-front, without his brain being able to see any difference between the two.

The world could also appear upside-down to Patient M, as well as backwards: he would be confused by men working upside-down on scaffolding for example.

Patient M was also able to read the time on a wristwatch from any angle.

https://www.sciencealert.com/patient-m-the-man-who-was-shot-in-the-head-and-woke-up-seeing-the-world-backwards

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/43759/20230515/meet-patient-m-bizarre-brain-injury-made-man-shot-head.htm

[Abramelin]

It is just another proof we're only experiencing the world around us by what our brains make of it.

 

[spartan max2]

Also interesting

Quote

It's a truly bizarre set of symptoms, but there were others too. They included seeing colors unstuck from their objects, objects appearing in triplicate, and color-blindness.

 

[quiXilver]

All perception is gamble.  ~Husserl

 

Perception is aproximation, estimation.  We do not perceive the world as it is, we perceive it as our systems interpret it.

Perception is a model, a map for reality.  It is not a direct experience of reality.

[Jon the frog]

It's why beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

[NCC1701]

It looks like some nerve wires got dislocated by the injury and got rewired in the wrong way.

[Amorlind]

Well in fact all is related to the plasticity of our brain and the bypasses used by it to solve issues...amazing and best network in the world !

Edited May 24, 2023 by Amorlind

[Nicolette]

I always heard that this is the actual way things are but our brain flips our vision. I thought there were special glasses that people wore for the experiment which flipped your vision after a day or so. He should have been given invertoscopes he probably just lost the ability of process in the accident.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Nicolette

[+and-then]

The picture of the location of the damage fits perfectly with where the visual cortex sits in the brain.  I first thought his optic chiasm was damaged but that's more centered and anteriorly situated.