 Optic nerve axons from one eye can only be selectively studied in the human after enucleation of the contralateral eye and thus degeneration of the axons on one side.After several years, the occurring optic nerve atrophy results in artifactual looping of the axons into the atrophic nerve.This looping was initially described by Wilbrand, who studied subjects with severe optic nerve atrophy after enucleation, and who then appears to have exaggerated the importance of this looping in later drawings.