Behavioral Signs to Cognition and Neuroanatomy

Description of Symptoms as Described in the Case

Mr. M has a long history of hypertension and high cholesterol. He has also been smoking, and his immediate family has a history of heart disease. Mr. M was stabilized after a quick start of blurry vision and weakness on the left side and could not detect visual information to his left.  Sensory perception showed normal sensation, while bilateral tactile stimulation showed that the left side was not captured. After admission, the language or motor deficits had resolved, although he faced difficulties in movements and objects’ the identification. Deficits in object naming vanished with touch, or demonstration of their usage. Further, he could not dress and lacked concern for the problem.

Linking Behavioral Signs to Cognition and Neuroanatomy

The most common presentation on the left was deficits in hemineglect’s modality-unspecific attention. According to Makashvili and Nikoleishvili (2017), these can be object-centered, stimulus-centered, or viewer-centered. Such groups rely on the point of reference for the syndrome. Mr. M’s incapacity to identify things on the left side are signs of hemineglect. He sketched a clock showing that he missed some important numbers on the left side, although he sketched it correctly on the right side. According to Makashvili and Nikoleishvili (2017), such are signs of neglect centered on stimulus, usually supplemented by anomalies in the superior temporal gyrus on the right.

Cognitive neuroscience involves studying the biological aspects and processes that underlie cognition with a focus on the neural brain connections involved in psychological processes. Hindman et al. (2018) addres how cognitive undertakings are controlled or affected by the brain’s neural circuits. Hemineglect is a common impact of unilateral brain injury often caused by stroke. While it occurs after the damage of the right and left hemispheres, it seems most stark and continuous in the right hemisphere (Hindman et al., 2018). Such patients often show extra-personal neglect, ignoring or not seeing objects to their left and turning their eyes to objects on their right. Some patients with right hemisphere hemineglect may show individual neglect and failure to do things to the left, while others exhibit personal and extra-personal neglect.

            To come up with clear results, it is important to conduct neuroimaging. The process involves using various methods to directly or indirectly copy the structure, function, or pharmacology of the central nervous system (Hindman et al., 2018). It is a new discipline in medicine, psychology, and neuroscience. The patient should undergo functional imaging to identify metabolic injuries on a finer scale. Also, functional imaging will be important because it deals with the nervous system’s construction and the analysis of gross intracranial syndromes, such as injury or tumor.

Diagnostic Considerations

As seen in Mr. M, Thalamic stroke is damage that affects the right thalamic area and often ends up in a mixture of anosognosia and hemispatial neglect (Griffin et al., 2020).  However, most of such patients have gross deficits in movement. Mr. M suffered from only fine motor control deficits. MCA infarction is an indicator of hemispatial neglect (Griffin et al., 2020). However, it is commonly connected with hemiparesis and aphasia, none of which was experienced by Mr. M. PCA Infarctions usually produce a signing profile comparable to MCA infarctions (Griffin et al., 2020). Provided that there is the manifestation of independent hemispatial neglect without hemiparesis, gross motor deficits, and aphasia normally seen in MCA or thalamic stroke, there is a high likelihood that Mr. M suffers from an ischemic stroke which affects the right temporoparietal joint.

In this case, the most likely diagnosis is thalamic stroke. A disruption of blood flow to an individual’s brain is known to lead to stroke. Without nutrients and blood, an individual’s brain tissue quickly starts to die, bringing lasting effects. A thalamic stroke is a lacunar stroke, a deep part of an individual’s brain (Griffin et al., 2020). It occurs in an individual’s thalamus, a small but essential part of one’s brain. It is involved in different crucial aspects of an individual’s everyday life, such as speech, balance, memory, motivation, and sensations of physical pain and touch. It is often associated with high cholesterol levels, smoking, and a history of heart failure seen with Mr. M.

Other deficits associated with the patient could be a general stroke. Strokes are categorized as being either hemorrhagic or ischemic, depending on their cause. However, about 85% of all strokes are ischemic, implying that a blocked artery in the brain causes them, often due to blood clotting (Griffin et al., 2020). On the other hand, hemorrhagic strokes are caused by leakage or a blood vessel’s rupture into the brain. Therefore, the patient could be suffering from a stroke considering his age and lifestyle.