["Hypermetamorphosis". Heinrich Neumann's (1814-1884) legacy].
The term "hypermetamorphosis" was originally coined in 1859 by an almost forgotten psychiatrist from Breslau, now Wroclaw in Poland, Heinrich Wilhelm Neumann. The 1906 textbook of his assistant Wernicke transmitted the concept to Klüver and Bucy, who understood it as the "excessive tendency to take notice of and to attend and react to every visual stimulus" in their syndrome description of bitemporal lobectomy in the monkey (1937-1939). Hypermetamorphosis so far has not been properly operationalized, and the concept appears outdated. Components such as "compulsive manipulation", "magnet reaction/groping", "compulsive grasping/grasp reflex", "utilization behavior", and "environmental dependency syndrome" can be better delineated and are commonly seen in frontal rather than temporal lesions. They may occur with frontal contusion, anterior cerebral artery infarction, in diseases of the Pick complex, and basal ganglia neurodegeneration.
Danek
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Neurologische Klinik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Postfach 701260, 81366 München. danek@lmu.de
D049672:History, 19th Century; D020232:Kluver-Bucy Syndrome / Q000266:history*; D011044:Poland; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*