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Asomatognosia Due to Premotor Cortex Damage

Shahar Arzy, MD; Leila S. Overney, PhD; Theodor Landis, MD; Olaf Blanke, MD, PhD

Arch Neurol. 2006;63:1022-1025.

Background  Patients with asomatognosia generally describe parts of their body as missing or disappeared from corporeal awareness. This disturbance is generally attributed to damage in the right posterior parietal cortex. However, recent neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies suggest that corporeal awareness and embodiment of body parts are instead linked to the premotor cortex of both hemispheres.

Patient  We describe a patient with asomatognosia of her left arm due to damage in the right premotor and motor cortices. The patient's pathological embodiment for her left arm was associated with mild left somatosensory loss, mild frontal dysfunction, and a behavioral deficit in the mental imagery of human arms.

Conclusion  Asomatognosia may also be associated with damage to the right premotor cortex.

Author Affiliations: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain-Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (Drs Arzy, Overney, and Blanke); and Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland (Drs Arzy, Landis, and Blanke).