GLOBAL SPATIAL DISORIENTATION - CLINICOPATHOLOGIC CORRELATIONS
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Date
1977
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Abstract
Patients (2) presenting with the acute onset of bilateral parietal lobe damage showed initially the features of Balint''s syndrome. After most of its manifestations had cleared, both patients exhibited severe disorders of spatial orientation: acoustic ataxia and inability to localize objects in space. One patient showed a topographical disorientation and abnormalities of whole body movements. This patient came to post-mortem examination, which revealed bilateral and fairly symmetrical old and recent infarctions of the superior parietal lobules. The reported abnormalities of whole body movements may be explained on the basis of a visuo-motor intrahemispheric disconnection due to the bilateral lesion of the dorsal parietal lobe. The gloval spatial disorientation may be the manifestation of a derangement of a specific function centered in the parietal lobe. Topographic disorientation apparently does not require the concomitant failure of oculomotor mechanisms for its production. The topography of the anatomical lesion was considered in relation to current concepts on brain damage after severe hypotension and cardiac arrest. This group of patients is most likely at risk of developing behavioral abnormalities akin to those reported.