NEURO - Common Brain Lesions

Question 1

Amygdala (bilateral)

Answer 1

Klüver-Bucy syndrome-disinhibited behavior (eg, hyperphagia, hypersexuality, hyperorality).

Associated with HSV-1 encephalitis

Question 2

Frontal lobe

Answer 2

Disinhibition and deficits in concentration, orientation, judgment

may have reemergence
of primitive reflexes

Question 3

Nondominant parietal

cortex (right parietal-temporal cortex)

Answer 3

Hemispatial neglect syndrome (agnosia of the contralateral side of the world).

Question 4

Dominant parietal

cortex (Left parietal-temporal cortex)

Answer 4

Agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, left-right disorientation.

Gerstmann syndrome

Question 5

Reticular activating system (midbrain)

Answer 5

Reduced levels of arousal and wakefulness (eg, coma).

Question 6

Mammillary bodies (bilateral)

Answer 6

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome—

Wernicke - confusion, ophthalmoplegia, ataxia;

Korsakoff - memory loss (anterograde and retrograde amnesia), confabulation, personality changes.

Associated with thiamine (B1) deficiency and excessive alcohol use

Wernicke problems come in a CAN of beer: Confusion, Ataxia, Nystagmus.

Question 7

Basal ganglia

Answer 7

tremor at rest, chorea, athetosis

Parkinson disease, Huntington disease

Question 8

Cerebellar hemisphere

Answer 8

Intention tremor, limb ataxia, loss of balance

damage to cerebellum–>ipsilateral deficits

fall toward side of lesion

Degeneration associated with chronic alcohol use.

Cerebellar hemispheres are laterally located—affect lateral limbs.

Question 9

Cerebellar vermis

Answer 9

Truncal ataxia, dysarthria

Vermis is centrally located—affects central body.

Question 10

Subthalamic nucleus

Answer 10

Contralateral hemiballismus

Question 11

Hippocampus (bilateral)

Answer 11

Anterograde amnesia—inability to make new memories.

*very susceptible to anoxic injury

Question 12

Paramedian pontine reticular formation

Answer 12

Eyes look away from side of lesion.

Question 13

Frontal eye fields

Answer 13

Eyes look toward lesion