Neurological Disorders

Neurological Disorders
Dr. Tynan Wilson

Capgras Delusion
! Disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend,
spouse, parent, or other close family member has been
replaced by an identical-looking imposter
! Understood as a neurological disorder, in which the
delusion primarily results from organic brain lesions or
degeneration
! Disconnection between the temporal cortex and the
limbic system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=JQsQgoPQ24s

Cotard Delusion (Walking Corpse
Syndrome)
! Afflicted person holds the delusion that they are dead,
either figuratively or literally
! Delusions that he or she does not exist as a person
! Some have the delusion that their skin is rotting, or they have
lost blood or internal organs
! Encountered in people afflicted with a psychosis,
neurological illness, mental illness, clinical depression,
derealization, migraine headaches
! Possibly sensory areas are disconnected from the limbic
system

Case Study
! “The patient’s symptoms occurred in the context of more
general feelings of unreality and of being dead. In
January 1990, after his discharge from the hospital in
Edinburgh, his mother took him to South Africa. He was
convinced that he had been taken to Hell, and that he
died of septicemia, or perhaps from AIDS, or from an
overdose of a yellow fever injection. He thought he had
borrowed his mother’s spirit to show him around hell, and
that she was asleep in Scotland.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VNcOZx1C3-U

Fregoli Delusion
! Patient keeps seeing the same person everywhere
! Named after the Italian actor, Leopoldo Fregoli, who was
renowned for his ability to make quick changes of
appearance during his stage act.
! First reported in 1927, descried a 27 year old woman in
London who believed she was being persecuted by two
actors she often saw at the theatre. She believed these
people pursued her closely, taking the form of people
she knew or met

Lewy Body Dementia
! Progressive degenerative dementia
! Overlaps clinically with Alzheimer’s disease and
Parkinson’s disease
! Characterized by the development of abnormal
proteinaceous cytoplasmic inclusions called Lewy bodies
! Visual hallucinations involve the perception of people or
animals that are not there

Somatoparaphrenia
! Delusion where one denies ownership of a limb or an
entire side of one’s body.
! The patient produces elaborate confabulations about
whose limb it really is, or how the limb ended up on their
body
! Reported to occur predominately in the left arm, and it is
often accompanied by left-sided paralysis and
anosognosia (denial or lack of awareness) of the
paralysis

Case Study
! “The most extreme delusion I’ve ever heard of is one
describe by Oliver Sacks, about a man who kept falling
out of bed at night. Each time he crashed to the floor,
the ward staff would hoist him back up, only to hear a
resounding thud a few moments later. After this
happened several times, Dr. Sacks asked the man why he
kept toppling out of bed. He looked frightened.
‘Doctor,’ he said, ‘these medical students have been
putting a cadaver’s arm in my bed and I’ve been trying
to get red of it all night!’ Not admitting ownership of his
paralyzed limb, the man was dragged to the floor each
time he tried to push it away.”

Body Integrity Identity Disorder
! Disorder in which the patient feels he or she would be
happier living as an amputee
! Related to xenomelia, “the oppressive feeling that one or
more limbs of one’s body do not belong to one’s self.”
! Abnormality of the brain’s inner body mapping function
(right parietal lobe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=frbssKzRvVA

Alien Hand Syndrome
! Neurological disorder that causes hand movement
without the person being aware of what is happening or
having control over the action
! Best documented in cases where a person has had the
two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_gYnF1jQMvs