People sometimes accidentally ingest false hellebore while pregnant, thinking it is hellebore, an unrelated plant which does not even resemble false hellebore, being recommended as a "natural" treatment for vomiting, cramps, and poor circulation, three conditions which may be present in the early stages of pregnancy. Cyclopia occurs  when certain proteins are inappropriately expressed, causing the brain to stay whole, rather than developing two distinct hemispheres. This leads to the fetus having one optic lobe and one olfactory lobe, resulting in the eye and nose malformations of cyclopia.The Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) gene regulator is involved in the separation of the single eye field into two bilateral fields. Although not proven, it is thought that SHH emitted from the prechordal plate suppresses Pax6, which causes the eye field to divide into two. If the SHH gene is mutated, the result is cyclopia, a single eye in the center of the face (Gilbert, 2000). Notable cases
A British description from 1665 of a colt apparently suffering from cyclopia reads:First, That it had no sign of any Nose in the usual place, nor had it any, in any other place of the Head, unless the double Bagg CC that grew out of the midst of the forehead, were some rudiment of it. Next, That the two Eyes were united into one Double Eye which was placed just in the middle of the Brow. In October 1766, an infant in France was born with cyclopia, living for only a few hours.
Reports of the case were made in the Mercure de France and an illustration of the infant was made by Marie Bihéron. The case was also mentioned in Volume IV of Buffons LHistoire Naturelle. On 1 March 1793, a 46-year-old woman in Boalts Torp, Glimåkra, Sweden gave birth to a child with cyclopia that died after two hours. The child was 35 cm long, its face without nose and nostrils, and its lidless eye with no eyebrow sat raised on the middle of its forehead like a large blueberry. The wrists were somewhat crooked as well as the right foot which was completely crooked and bent inwards. It was not clear whether it was a boy or a girl, but it was believed to be the former. On December 28, 2005, a kitten with cyclopia, "Cy", was born in Redmond, Oregon, United States and died about one day after birth. In 2006, a baby girl in India with cyclopia was born. Her only eye was in the center of her forehead. She did not have a nose and her brain did not separate into two separate hemispheres (holoprosencephaly). The child died one day after her birth. In 2011, an albino cyclops shark fetus was discovered in the body of a caught shark in Mexico, with no discernible nose and one giant eye. The unborn fetus was turned over for medical studies. On October 10, 2012, a small kitten was born.