Solving the medical mystery of a brain that sees numbers as spaghetti
For patient RFS (identified by his initials), numbers appear as random squiggles and swirls. (Johns Hopkins University/)The patient known as RFS looks at a number, but all he sees is “spaghetti.”Show him a picture of one circle hovering above another, and he sees two circles. But as soon as the circles get close enough to look like an eight—spaghetti.RFS developed corticobasal syndrome in 2010 at the age of 60, a rare progressive degenerative condition that affects less than one in 100,000 people per year and corrupts parts of the cortex and basal ganglia in the brain. After about a year of headaches, and flashes of vision loss and amnesia, RFS started having muscle tremors, difficulty walking, and—perhaps most strangely—the inability to see numbers. Experts have dubbed his number confusion “digit metamorphopsia,” and hope his condition could lead to a better understanding of human perception.“Digit blindness isn’t quite accurate,” says Teresa...