Those with right hemisphere legions show a dull unrelenting cheerfulness in the face of incapacity

Not only do those with damage to the right hemisphere lack insight into illness or even denial of it. In right hemisphere lesions, there is not only denial or indifference in the face of incapacity, but sometimes a disturbance of mood ‘reminiscent of the fatuousness of those with frontal lesions: euphoria, joviality, a penchant for feeble puns’. Remember that the right frontal lobe has a depressive stance, where as the left shows undue cheerfulness. One of the patients reported by Hécaen and de Ajuriaguerra, who had complete hemi-asomatognosia caused by a parietal tumour ‘exhibited a surprising joviality, at the same time complaining of a fierce headache.’

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References

• Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (p. 170). London, UK: Yale University Press.

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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️