Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

Brief Clinical Note

A patient with prosopagnosia which developed after an infarction in the left occipital lobe in addition to an old infarction in the right occipital lobe

Keisuke Iwanaga, M.D.1)3), Akira Satoh, M.D.1), Hideyo Satoh, M.D.1), Makiko Seto, M.D.1), Makoto Ochi, M.D.2) and Mitsuhiro Tsujihata, M.D.1)

1)Section of Neurology, Nagasaki Kita Hospital
2)Section of Radiology, Nagasaki Kita Hospital
3)Aburagizaka Clinic

A 66-year-old, right-handed male, was admitted to our hospital with difficulty in recognizing faces and colors. He had suffered a stroke in the right occipital region three years earlier that had induced left homonymous hemianopsia, but not prosopagnosia. A neurological examination revealed prosopagnosia, color agnosia, constructional apraxia, and topographical disorientation, but not either hemineglect or dressing apraxia. The patient was unable to distinguish faces of familiar persons such as his family and friends, as well as those of unfamiliar persons such as doctors and nurses. Brain MRI demonstrated an old infarction in the right medial occipital lobe and a new hemorrhagic infarction in the left medial occipital lobe, including the fusiform and lingual gyrus. It is unclear whether a purely right medial occipital lesion can be responsible for prosopagnosia, or whether bilateral medial occipital lesions are necessary for this occurrence. The current case indicated that bilateral medial occipital lesions play an important role in inducing porsopagnosia.
Full Text of this Article in Japanese PDF (516K)

(CLINICA NEUROL, 51: 354|357, 2011)
key words: prosopagnosia, bilateral occipital lobe lesions, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, left occipital lobe lesion

(Received: 6-Jul-10)