This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
In 1955, English psychiatrist John Todd (1914–1987) described Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) as self-experienced paroxysmal body image illusions involving distortions of the size, mass, or shape of the patient's own body or its position in space, often occurring with depersonalization and derealization.1 Todd named AIWS for the perceptual disorder of altered body image experienced by the protagonist in the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), written by Lewis Carroll2 (the pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson [1832–1898]), possibly based in part on Dodgson's own migrainous experiences.3 In the story, Alice followed a talking white rabbit down a rabbit hole and then experienced several dramatic changes in her own body size and shape (e.g., shrinking to 10 inches high, growing unnaturally large, and growing unnaturally tall but not any wider).2 Although Todd's report was the most influential, Lippman4 provided an earlier description in 1952. In Lippman's article, one of the patients reported feeling short and wide as she walked, and referenced Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in regard to her body image illusions, referring to them as a “Tweedledum” or “Tweedledee” feeling.
Footnotes
Supplemental data at www.neurology.org
Author contributions: J. Lanska: drafting/revising the manuscript, study concept or design, analysis or interpretation of data. D. Lanska: drafting/revising the manuscript, study concept or design, analysis or interpretation of data, study supervision.
Study funding: No targeted funding reported.
Disclosure: J. Lanska received personal compensation from Medlink Neurology for medical publishing. D. Lanska received personal compensation from Medlink Neurology for medical publishing and editorial responsibilities. Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures.
- Received August 27, 2012.
- Accepted November 26, 2012.
- © 2013 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
If you are uploading a letter concerning an article:
You must have updated your disclosures within six months: http://submit.neurology.org
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
