Where are your body parts? A pure case of heterotopagnosia following left parietal stroke

• Published in: Neurocase Vol. 15; no. 6; pp. 459 - 465
• Main Authors: Auclair, Laurent, Noulhiane, Marion, Raibaut, Patrick, Amarenco, Gerard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis Group 01-12-2009
• Subjects: Aged; Agnosia - etiology; Agnosia - pathology; Autotopagnosia; Body Image; Body representations; Body schema; Brain - pathology; Female; Functional Laterality; Heterotopagnosia; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Parietal lobe; Parietal Lobe - pathology; Self Concept; Social Perception; Stroke - complications; Stroke - pathology; Visual Perception
• ISSN: 1355-4794; 1465-3656
• DOI: 10.1080/13554790902911642

We studied the involvement of the parietal cortex in interpersonal body representation in a left parietal stroke patient. We used tasks assessing different types of body representations and localization of object parts. The patient performed normally on all tasks of body knowledge. However, she was unable to locate body parts on another person or on body representations. In contrast, she pointed correctly to the same body parts on herself or object representations. The data support the important role of the left parietal cortex in the transformation of intrinsic spatial coding of body parts localization in extrinsic body part coordinates.