Akinetic mutism
American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary:
Top
akinetic mutism
n.
A syndrome characterized by the inability to speak, loss of voluntary movement, and apparent loss of emotional feeling. It is related to lesions of the upper brain stem.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Akinetic mutism
Akinetic mutism is a medical term describing patients tending neither to move (akinesia)nor speak (mutism). It is the result of severe frontal lobe injury in which the pattern of inhibitory control is one of increasing passivity and gradually decreasing speech and motion.
An example of a cause of this disorder is an olfactory groove meningioma. It is also seen in the final stages of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (a rare degenerative brain disease), and in acute cases of encephalitis lethargica. It can also occur in a stroke that affects both anterior cerebral artery territories. Another cause is neurotoxicity due to drugs such as Tacrolimus and Cyclosporine.
Another cause of both akinesia and mutism is ablation of the cingulate gyrus. Destruction of the cingulate gyrus has been used in the treatment of psychosis. Such lesions result in akinesia, mutism, apathy, and indifference to painful stimuli.[1]
See also
References
- ^ Fix JD. Neuroanatomy. 4th ed.
 |
This medical sign article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Read more
