Verbal asomatognosia

Abstract

Verbal asomatognosia is a form of neglect in which a patient denies ownership of a limb contralateral to a brain lesion. To establish the neuroanatomic substrate of this syndrome, we analyzed the CTs of 12 right-hemisphere stroke patients with neglect and verbal asomatognosia and 4 patients with neglect but without asomatognosia. Of 16 cortical and subcortical brain regions analyzed, supramarginal gyrus and its subcortical connections within posterior corona radiata were most consistently involved in the asomatognosia cases. One or both of these regions were spared in all cases of neglect without asomatognosia. Our data confirm Nielsen's localization of asomatognosia to the right supramarginal gyrus and thalamoparietal peduncle. Converging lines of evidence from experiments in humans and monkeys suggest that damage to area PF may be necessary for the production of personal neglect of a limb.