DYSFUNCTION-PARIETAL LOBE
SUMMARY
DESTRUCTIVE LESIONS (DOMINANT)
Mnemonic: Gerstmann can't see or feel half of his body or what's touching him!
1. Gerstmann syndrome: right-left disorientation, finger agnosia, agraphia (without alexia) & acalculia
2. Contralateral hemianopia
3. Sensory loss
4. Contralateral neglect (rarely)
DESTRUCTIVE LESIONS (NON-DOMINANT)
Mnemonic: I lost my sense of humor, half of my vision and memory of myself whilst dressing!
1. Sensory loss
2. Contralateral neglect
3. Contralateral hemianopia
4. Topographic memory loss
5. Anosognosia (impaired self-awareness, lack of awareness of disability)
6. Dressing apraxia (inability to wear or button up clothing); constructional apraxia (inability to copy geometric patterns)
DESTRUCTIVE LESIONS (EITHER SIDE)
1. Agraphaesthesia (inability to recognize letters or numbers drawn on the skin)
2. Abnormal 2-point discrimination (normal: 3cm on the hands and feet, 0.6cm on the fingertips)
3. Bilateral (or contralateral) astereognosis: inability to identify an object by touch alone1
IRRITATIVE LESIONS
1. Simple partial seizures involving the contralateral limb
2. Jacksonian march (sensory seizures spreading up/down the sensory strip; begins on one side, with thumb/fingers & spread to the wrist, forearm, arm, face & leg; Todd's paresis may ensue)
Ref: 1. Strub, R. and Black, F., 2000. The mental status examination in neurology. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Reference(s)
R.M.H McMinn (1998). Last’s anatomy: regional and applied. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. Get it on Amazon.
Drake, Richard L., et al. Gray's Anatomy for Students. Elsevier, 2023. Get it on Amazon.
