Today, we moved on up from the brain stem to the cerebral cortex. We learned about the various functional areas of the cortex and the symptoms created by different lesions.

This Daily Doodle represents a syndrome caused by a lesion to the posterior parietal cortex in the non-dominant hemisphere which is called Contralateral Neglect Syndrome. The non-dominant hemisphere inboth “left-handed” and “right-handed” individuals is typically the right-side. The dominant hemisphere is based on the side where your main centers for language are, not your handiness…

In Left-Sided Neglect Syndrome, stimuli from the left side are ignored. The stimuli receptors are intact, however, there is no awareness of the stimuli and therefore no attention is given. Patients with Left-Sided Neglect will not dress the left side of their body (for example, they will not put their left arm through the arm hole), they will not shave the left side of their face and they may not eat from the left side of their plate. When asked to draw a clock, they will only draw the right side. These patients are only aware of the right side of their extra-personal space and of their own bodies. To reiterate, the sensory receptors and pathways for perceiving the stimuli are intact (they can “see” it), they are just not aware of it…