Abstract
Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a disorienting neurological condition that affects
human perception to the senses of vision, hearing, touch, sensation, and the phenomenon
of time. Individuals affected with Alice in Wonderland syndrome can experience alterations
in their perception of the size of objects or their own body parts, known as metamorphopsias.
It is known to occur in conditions including migraine, epilepsy, and certain intoxicants
and infectious diseases. The name refers to Lewis Carrol's well-known children's book
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which the title character experiences alterations of sensation in which she felt
that her body had grown too tall or too small, or parts of her body were changing
shape, size, or relationship to the rest of her body. The syndrome was described in
1952 by Caro Lippman, and given its name in 1955 by John Todd. The metamorphopsias
characteristic of this condition are also sometimes referred to as Lilliputian hallucinations, a reference to the fictional island of Lilliput in the novel Gulliver's Travels, written by Jonathan Swift in 1726. As such, many literary and medical publications
have roots in the description of this syndrome. The purpose of this review is to summarize
the literary and historical significance of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, as well
as to provide the reader with a medical overview of the condition.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 23, 2017
Accepted:
August 16,
2017
Received in revised form:
August 11,
2017
Received:
June 2,
2017
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: We have no conflicts of interest or funding sources to declare.
Presented in part at the 69th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Boston, MA, April 22-28, 2017.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
