title: Auditory agnosia caused by a tectal germinoma.
abstract: The authors describe a patient with auditory agnosia caused by a tectal germinoma. Despite having normal audiometric tests, the patient failed to recognize words and musical characters. On head MRI, the inferior colliculi were infiltrated by tumor. Neuropsychological tests revealed severe impairment in recognition of environmental sounds and words, defective musical perception, and stop consonant-vowel discrimination. Inferior colliculus may play a role in the analysis of sound properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Meng-Fai
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Sung-Tsang
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000377:Agnosia / Q000209:etiology*; D001763:Blepharoptosis / Q000209:etiology; D002551:Cerebral Ventricle Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy; D018450:Disease Progression; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D018237:Germinoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000209:etiology; D007245:Inferior Colliculi / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015192:Infratentorial Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015835:Ocular Motility Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D010211:Papilledema / Q000209:etiology; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests