ATROPHY OF THE THALAMUS IN A CASE OF ACQUIRED HEMIPLEGIA ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFUSE PORENCEPHALY AND SCLEROSIS OF THE LEFT CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE.

Abstract

THE following case is reported both on account of its unusual pathological features and the opportunity it affords of studying thalamic atrophy in an example of what is for all practical purposes the equivalent of an experimental hemidecortication in a human subject. In recent years a considerable amount of experimental work has been completed on the study of thalamo-cortical connections in lower mammals. This work has demonstrated that the projection of different thalamic nuclei on to different areas of the cortex is more precise and also more extensive than had been generally supposed. In experimental animals, the degree to which thalamic nuclei are functionally dependencies of the cortex has been assessed in some cases by the study of cell degeneration in the thalamus following complete, or almost complete, hemidecortication. Since in the present case the pathological condition has led to a destruction of the cortex while the basal ganglia have been left intact, it also permits of a differentiation between thalamo-cortical connections, and possible thalamostriate connections which may exist (and which have been described) in respect of some of the nuclear elements of the thalamus.