Parietal Lobe Dysfunction

Question 1

Dominant parietal lobe dysfunction

Answer 1

Gerstmann’s syndrome

Gerstmann’s syndrome consists of:-

finger agnosia (loss in ability to name or recognise specific fingers on the patient’s own or on others hands)
dyscalculia (an impaired ability to perform mental arithmetic)
dysgraphia (inability to write)
right-left disorientation (inability to carry out instructions that involve an appreciation of the right and left)

It results from dominant parietal lobe lesions and is usually caused by a stroke.

Question 2

Non dominant parietal lobe dysfunction

Answer 2

associated with the following problems:-

anosognosia (lack of awareness of a disability or disease)
dressing apraxia (difficulty in getting dressed)
spatial neglect (lack of awareness of one side of the body)
constructional apraxia (inability to copy pictures or combine parts of something into a meaningful whole)

Question 3

Bilateral parietooccipital lobe dysfunction

Answer 3

Bilateral damage to the parietooccipital lobe (at the junction of the two) is rare but can result in a condition called Balint’s syndrome. This is characterised by:-

ocular apraxia (difficulty keeping the eyes still)
optic ataxia (difficulty moving the eyes to a specific position)
simultanagnosia (inability to simultaneously perceive the different aspects of a picture and appreciate it as a whole)
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