"...(one patient) adamantly denied any visual problems, often
complaining that the light was poor in the room, that he did not have
his best pair of glasses with him, or that it was nighttime." - William
Hirstein
Overview
Anton's Syndrome is a form of anosognosia in which a patient does
not realize that they are blind, and uses confabulation to explain
away their lack of sight. This involves inventing visual cues when
there are none, accounting for their vision loss as the effects of
fatigue, or claiming that there is not enough light to see. Known
variously as Anton's Blindness or Anton-Babinski syndrome.
Cause
Anton's syndrome most often results from bilateral lesions of the
occipital cortex, the site of visual processing; some cases have resulted from blunt force trauma
to the head. It was first described by Czech neurologist Gabriel
Anton, who wrote about it in 1899.
Sources:
Archives of Neurology
Wrong Diagnosis: Anton's Syndrome
Indian
Journal of Ophthalmology
Hirstein, William. Brain Fiction: Self-deception and the Riddle of Confabulation MIT Press, 2005, pg. 12.