Researchers have found a brain network connection associated with anosognosia. This study was published in the journal Annals of Neurology. Anosognosia is a condition where the patient is unaware of a neurological or psychological deficit. Visual anosognosia, also known as Anton syndrome, is characterized by complete cortical blindness and the inability to detect vision loss.
The researchers examined the connectivity patterns of 267 lesion areas associated with vision loss (conscious and unconscious) or weakness (conscious and unconscious). The researchers tested whether these lesion-induced abnormalities translate to specific brain networks using a recently proven technique known as lesion network mapping.
They discovered unique network connections associated with visual and motor anosognosia, as well as a shared network for awareness of these deficits. The shared awareness network centered on the hippocampus and precuneus—brain regions associated with memory—while the visual anosognosia network was defined by connections to visual and metacognitive processing areas.
“Despite being described more than 100 years ago, visual anosognosia has had little formal analysis,” said corresponding author Isaiah Kletenik, MD, an investigator in Brigham’s Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology and the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics.
He added: “Our results are the first to identify a role for the hippocampus in a systematic analysis of visual anosognosia. Memory-related structures are necessary to recognize a deficit by comparing visual input with prior information stored in memory while updating self-belief of performance relative to prior ability.
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