Adaptation to central scotoma. Part II. Perceptual filling-in phenomenon

The visual cortex may reorganize after occurrence of a scotoma. Different experimental studies have shown that there is an attempt to minimize the impact of the scotoma, the missing information being filled-in by surrounding information. The clinical consequences of this filling-in phenomenon have been extensively studied by Safran and co-workers. The present review summarizes the current literature on this phenomenon and its clinical consequences. Furthermore, the authors present their own experience with the filling-in phenomenon in patients with age-related macular degeneration. Their study shows that, with few exceptions, the phenomenon only occurs in patients with bilateral central scotoma, in their better eye.