Autotopagnosia: the inability to locate parts of the body

Although we normally talk about the sensory channels that help us learn about our environment by referring to the "five senses", the truth is that there are actually more.

Touch, for example, is related to our ability to perceive pain and changes in temperature. But there is still another "sense" that we tend to ignore, and whose importance is revealed in those cases in which a neurological disorder makes it disappear. This biological alteration is known as autotopagnosia., and the capacity that it suppresses is the ability to know at each moment which parts of the space are being occupied by the parts of the body.

What is autotopagnosia?

Etymologically, the term autotopagnosia already gives clues about its meaning: it is a type of agnosia, like the prosopagnosia wave visual agnosia, in which the disability has to do with the possibility of knowing in what positions the parts of the body of oneself or of another person or entity are located.

So this neurological disorder, which is also sometimes called somatotopagnosia,

It is expressed in serious problems when it comes to knowing the orientation and placement of parts of the body.or, this being the product of an organic lesion in certain parts of the brain.

Causes of autotopagnosia

Autotopagnosia is usually associated with lesions in the parietal lobe of the left cerebral hemisphere. However, it is not easy to know its causes in detail.

As in almost all neurological disorders, it is very difficult to locate an isolated cause that explains the appearance of the symptoms, because the nervous system (and especially the human nervous system) is tremendously complex, both structurally and in terms of its functioning.

In addition, the cases in which autotopagnosia appears are rare, which makes its study difficult. However, Yes, possible explanations have been proposed for how this alteration appears.no.

There are three main hypotheses about what may be the causes of this disorder. The first of them conceives autotopagnosia as a product of a lesion in the areas of the posterior left hemisphere related to language. (It could simply be a type of anomie, which is characterized by the impossibility of referring to elements by the name that serves to designate them); the second understands this failure as an alteration in certain parts of the parietal lobe that are involved when imagining a three-dimensional model of the body; and the third characterizes it as a visuospatial problem also related to the parietal lobe.

The possibility of analyzing in depth the causes of autotopagnosia is hampered by the fact thate often occurs in conjunction with other neurological disorders such as apraxia.

Symptoms of this neurological disorder

People with autotopagosia have serious difficulties in locating their own body parts, of another person or of a drawn character. In addition, they usually show symptoms of two types:

1. semantic errors

These types of symptoms correspond to cases in which, when asked to point to one body part, they point to another that belongs to a similar semantic category. For example, when instead of pointing to an arm they point to a leg, or when instead of pointing to a knee they point to an elbow.

2. contiguity errors

This symptom has to do with the person's inability to know exactly where a part of the body is. For example, when asked to point to the chest, points to the belly, or when asked to point to the ear, points in the direction of the neck.

It is also necessary to point out that not all cases of autotopagnosia are the same, and that while some people are unable to tell where one's body parts are himself or another entity, others may have problems locating their own, or it may be that by touching the area of ​​his own body he realizes where it is and what it is, for example.

Treatment of somatotopagnosia

Being a neurological disorder caused by injuries, it is considered that the symptoms cannot completely disappear and that the marks left in the brain due to the injury are irreversible. However, it is possible to work mitigating the symptoms of the disease, teaching the person to adopt habits that make day-to-day life easier.

Unfortunately, to this day there are no known pharmacological treatments that have shown efficacy in these cases, which is why it is necessary to treat each case individually. specially personalized to know all the problems that patients face and the possible opportunities to which they are exposed when it comes to making progress in their way of life Act.

concluding

Autotopagnosia is a difficult-to-understand neurological disorder because its nature is not yet understood: it could be a language bug (i.e. problems calling the things by name) or visuospatial (that is, related to not knowing where that part of the body is that we already know how to calls).

More research is needed to develop more effective intervention programs.