title: A patient who misidentified all surrounding persons as her family.
abstract: This report describes a patient who misidentified all surrounding persons as her family after a cerebral hemorrhage in the right temporal lobe. She had no difficulty with visual face recognition. Single-photon emission computed tomography revealed hyperperfusion in the right amygdala and hippocampus. Electroencephalography showed a bilateral fronto-temporal delta burst intermittently during the symptom. Carbamazepine suppressed the symptom completely. These results suggest that hyperexcitability in the right limbic system and bilateral fronto-temporal cortex might cause the alteration of familiarity. She felt a strong sense of familiarity to others. Perhaps because it lasted a long time, she regarded these other people as her family.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. kotasakurai@med.hokudai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Tsugiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurita
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiga
authors.forename: Youji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*