The role of the thalamus in recovery from tactile extinction and crossed tactile extinction

Abstract

A 68-year-old man had a cerebral infarction affecting the right parietal lobe, right insula, and the left prefrontal region. On admission, left hand tactile extinction was noted when the hands were placed both in anatomical and crossed positions, but was noted only in crossed positions from day 20 and later. Five months later, the patient developed another cerebral infarction in the right thalamus, and left hand tactile extinction was again seen both in the anatomical and crossed positions. Our findings suggest that the thalamus was involved in the recovery from the tactile extinction in anatomical positions.

Keywords:

• Tactile extinction
• Anatomical and crossed
• Thalamus
• Parietal lobe
• Recovery

We are grateful to Dr Sawamoto N (HBRC, Kyoto University), who gave helpful suggestions about the MR images of our patient, and also to Dr Hayashi H (Tokyo Metropolitan Neurological Hospital), for his helpful comments on this study.

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.