2011/04/21 by Yoshiyuki Nishio, Masaki Hashimoto, Kazunari Ishii +1 · 1 citation
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Epilepsy research and treatment #Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism #Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1136/jnnp.2010.236463
openalex publication_date 2011/04/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cognitive and behavioural symptoms represent primary clinical manifestations of anterior thalamic infarcts (ATIs) in the tuberothalamic artery territory. The aim of the study is to understand the pathomechanism of cognitive and behavioural disturbances in left ATI (LATI). METHODS: 6 patients with isolated LATIs were investigated using neuropsychological assessments, MRI stereotactic lesion localisation and positron emission tomography. RESULTS: The patients were characterised clinically by verbal memory impairment, language disturbances dominated by anomia and word-finding difficulty and apathy. The ventral anterior nucleus (VA) proper, magnocellular VA (VAmc), ventral lateral anterior nucleus (VLa), ventral lateral posterior nucleus (VLp) and mammillothalamic tract were involved in all patients. Compared with healthy controls, the regional cerebral blood flow was lower in the thalamus, the dorsolateral, medial and orbital frontal lobes, the anterior temporal lobe, the inferior parietal lobule and the occipital lobe of the left hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: The authors propose that the Papez circuit disruption at the mammillothalamic tract and possibly thalamomedial temporal disconnection at the VA region is responsible for memory impairment and that the thalamo-anterior temporal disconnection is associated with language disturbance in LATI, respectively.