title: Egocentric disorientation following bilateral parietal lobe damage.
abstract: Aguirre and D'Esposito (1999) suggested a taxonomy and theoretical framework for understanding topographical disorders. One of the problems they described involved egocentric disorientation, in which deficits are not strictly confined to the topographical sphere but are seen on a wide variety of visuo-spatial paradigms. Here, we report a neuropsychological investigation of MU, a person with egocentric disorientation. To test the usefulness of Aguirre and D'Esposito's framework, we administered tests which were predicted to be easy or difficult for people with egocentric disorientation to show that MU was impaired on tasks sensitive to egocentric disorientation and that he showed adequate performance on tests sensitive to other types of topographical representation. Thus MU showed normal performance on a test of recognition of famous landmarks and he could identify photographs of personally familiar places in his home town, yet he could not say how to get from a recognised building to another place in his environment. His performance fulfils the criteria for egocentric disorientation and fits the predictions derived from Aguirre and D'Esposito's views.
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. barbara.wilson@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: Fergus
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gracey
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stow
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Macniven
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weatherley
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000377:Agnosia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000506:poisoning; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003916:Dextromoramide / Q000506:poisoning; D062787:Drug Overdose; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013028:Space Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D003916:Dextromoramide