Alexithymia-like disorder in right anterior cingulate infarction.
The frontal midline structures have been demonstrated by functional neuroimaging to be involved in the affective control of human behavior. However, due to the rareness of diseases affecting this part of the brain little is known about behavioral abnormalities following damage to these brain areas. We present a patient with a right anterior cingulate infarct who presented with an alexithymia-like disorder. Event-related potentials revealed an abnormality of emotional face perception in the right cerebral hemisphere. We suggest that the anterior cingulate lesion induced a deficit of emotion processing including emotional face perception probably due to an interference in a critical node of a large-scale network subserving affective control of behavior.
Schäfer
Ralf
R
Institute of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Popp
Kerstin
K
Jörgens
Silke
S
Lindenberg
Robert
R
Franz
Matthias
M
Seitz
Rüdiger J
RJ
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D019260:Expressed Emotion / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology