Clinical Investigation of Patients with Brain Damage and Incidental Occurrence of Simultanagnosia

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with brain damage and incidental occurrence of simultanagnosia. Methods: Among patients with brain damage who visited Fukui General Clinic for undergoing rehabilitation between 2012 and 2017, 16 patients with incidental occurrence of simultanagnosia were investigated. With reference to Ohigashi's classifications, brain damage was classified into the following forms: attentive form, perceptual form, or semantic form; clinical characteristics, symptoms in daily life, and imaging characteristics in patients with each form of brain damage were investigated. Results: There were nine patients in the attentive form group, four in the perceptual form group, and three in the semantic form group. All patients in the attentive form group had right parietal lobe lesions, with six exhibiting unilateral spatial neglect and three exhibiting optic ataxia. All four patients in the perceptual form group had left temporo-occipital lobe lesions and exhibited slow processing speeds that affected their daily lives. All three patients in the semantic form group were elderly and had brain atrophy.Conclusions: We investigated lesion distribution and complicating symptoms in patients with brain damage and incidental occurrence of simultanagnosia based on the form of brain damage. In the attentive form group, unilateral lesions in the right parietal lobe had developed. Detailed interviews regarding daily life activities and detailed evaluation performed with the likelihood of simultanagnosia kept in mind are necessary when examining patients with brain damage.