''I Could See, and Yet, Mon, I Could Na' See'': William Macewen, the Agnosias, and Brain Surgery

Autor/in	Macmillan, Malcolm
Titel	''I Could See, and Yet, Mon, I Could Na' See'': William Macewen, the Agnosias, and Brain Surgery
Quelle	In: Brain and Cognition, 56 (2004) 1, S.63-76 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-2626
DOI	10.1016/j.bandc.2004.05.007
Schlagwörter	Brain; Surgery; Case Studies; Physicians; Patients; Neurological Impairments; Perceptual Impairments + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gehirn; Chirurgie; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Physician; Doctor; Arzt; Patient; Neurodegenerative Erkrankung; Perceptual handicaps; Wahrnehmungsstörung
Abstract	Two little noticed cases in which William Macewen used symptoms of visual agnosia to plan brain surgery on the angular gyrus are reviewed and evaluated. Following a head injury, Macewen's first patient had an immediate and severe visual object agnosia that lasted for about 2 weeks. After that he gradually became homicidal and depressed and it was for those symptoms that Macewen first saw him, some 11 months after the accident. From his examination, Macewen concluded that the agnosia clearly indicated a lesion in ''the posterior portion of the operculum or in the angular gyrus.'' When he removed parts of the internal table that had penetrated those structures the homicidal impulses disappeared. Macewen's second patient was seen for a chronic middle ear infection and, although neither aphasic nor deaf, was "word deaf." Slightly later he became "psychically blind" as well. Macewen suspected a cerebral abscess pressing on both the angular gyrus and the first temporal convolution. A large subdural abscess was found there and the symptoms disappeared after it was treated. The patients are discussed and Macewen's positive results analysed in the historical context of the dispute over the proposed role of the angular gyrus as the visual centre. (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10