OCULOCEPHALOMOTOR DISORDERS AND BILATERAL THALAMO-SUB-THALAMIC INFARCTION

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 137  (11) , 709-722
Abstract
A 33-yr-old woman on oral contraceptives suddenly developed neurological disorders characterized by decreased alertness, absence of motor and verbal spontaneity and anterograde amnesia with difficulties in verbal and visual learning. She also presented paralysis of upwards and downwards ocular movements affecting mainly saccadic movements while convergence was normal. An initial almost total absence of spontaneous head movements and later an impossibility to carry out downwards movements of the head was noted. This apparently represents a syndrome still not reported in human pathology. The clinical course was favorable. CT [computed tomography] scan suggested the presence of a paramedian infarct of the region supplied by the thalamosubthalamic artery of the type IIb of Percheron. An analogy is suggested between these disorders of oculocephalomotor behavior and those observed by Denny-Brown in experimental bilateral retrorubric lesions. The possibility of a lesion in the internal thalamic nucleus and the adjacent subthalamic region is considered.