Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Semi-quantitative Assessment Using [18F]FDG Tracer in Patients with Severe Brain Injury
09:58

Semi-quantitative Assessment Using [18F]FDG Tracer in Patients with Severe Brain Injury

Published on: November 9, 2018

Persistent recurrence of hypomania and prosopoaffective agnosia in a patient with right thalamic infarct

P Vuilleumier1, F Ghika-Schmid, J Bogousslavsky

  • 1Division of Neuropsychology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology
|April 30, 1998
PubMed

Insights

A right thalamic stroke led to persistent hypomania and prosopoaffective agnosia, an inability to identify emotional facial expressions. This case highlights potential links between right hemisphere emotional processing deficits and mood disturbances.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Neurology
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Thalamic infarcts can cause diverse neurological and psychiatric symptoms.
  • Mania and hypomania are mood disorders characterized by elevated or irritable mood.
  • Prosopoaffective agnosia, the inability to recognize emotions in faces, is a rare cognitive deficit.

Observation:

  • A 63-year-old man developed persistent hypomania following a small right thalamic infarct.
  • Neuropsychological assessment revealed prosopoaffective agnosia as the primary cognitive impairment.
  • The patient could identify facial identity but not the emotions conveyed by the faces.

Findings:

  • This is the first reported case of prosopoaffective agnosia associated with a thalamic lesion.
  • The findings suggest a potential link between right hemisphere dysfunction and emotional processing deficits.
  • Cognitive functions including perception, frontal lobe functions, and abstract reasoning remained largely intact.

Implications:

  • This case suggests the right thalamus plays a role in emotional processing and mood regulation.
  • Understanding these connections may offer new insights into the neurobiology of mood disorders.
  • Further research is needed to explore the relationship between focal brain lesions and persistent hypomania.

More Related Videos

Full-Endoscopic Surgery for Hypothalamic Hamartoma Resection02:22

Full-Endoscopic Surgery for Hypothalamic Hamartoma Resection

Published on: April 12, 2024

Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface in Rehabilitation of Upper Limb Motor Dysfunction After Stroke09:42

Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface in Rehabilitation of Upper Limb Motor Dysfunction After Stroke

Published on: September 1, 2023

Related Concept Videos

Visual Agnosia01:12

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...
Prosopagnosia01:24

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is the inability to recognize faces. In severe cases, individuals with prosopagnosia may not recognize close family members, including parents and spouses, by their faces. For instance, someone with prosopagnosia might walk past their child in a crowd, only realizing their mistake upon noticing their child's distinctive backpack or favorite jacket. Prosopagnosia specifically impairs facial recognition, while the recognition of other objects or...
Role of Hippocampus in Memory01:19

Role of Hippocampus in Memory

The hippocampus, a critical brain structure, plays an essential role in memory processing, particularly in the formation and retrieval of memory. This small, seahorse-shaped region is located within the medial temporal lobe, with one hippocampus in each brain hemisphere. Experimental studies involving lesions in the hippocampi of rats have demonstrated significant impairments in tasks such as object recognition and maze navigation, indicating the hippocampus involvement in both recognition and...
Amnesia01:13

Amnesia

Amnesia is a condition marked by long-term memory loss, which impairs the ability to recall past events or create new memories.
The severity and duration of memory loss vary depending on the type and underlying cause. Amnesia is classified into two main types: retrograde and anterograde.
Retrograde amnesia is marked by the loss of memories formed before the onset of the condition. Patients may recall distant past events but often forget those occurring shortly before the incident.
Anterograde...