Looking Glass Syndrome

Marsha is a single mother of three, the youngest being in high school. She works as a sales associate in the women’s fashion section of a larger department store. Last year, Marsha experienced a cerebral vascular accident, or stroke, while on her way to work and was brought in to the hospital. Strokes occur when the blood supply of the brain is disrupted, such as an ischemic attack, thrombosis, or a ruptured blood vessel. When the patient awoke in the hospital, she was unable to understand the staff or her family and expressed difficulty in forming replies. This suggests that the CVA may have occurred in the left hemisphere of the brain, specifically in the Broca and Wernicke’s areas. The medical team suggested that Marsha be released from

Mr. Fix-it is a 59 year old man with a history of alcohol abuse and diabetic hypertension. Mr. Fix-it has been currently experiencing symptoms such as: rambling speech, poor short-term memory, weakness on the left side of his body, neglects both visual and auditory stimuli to his left side, difficulty with rapid visual scanning, difficulty with complex visual, perceptual and constructional tasks, unable to recall nonverbal materials, and mild articulatory problems. The diagnosis for Mr. Fix-it’s problem is most likely a right-hemisphere stroke. A right-hemisphere stroke is occurs when a blood clot blocks a vessel in the brain, or when there is a torn vessel bleeding into the brain. “A right-hemisphere stroke is common in adults who have

Graded Mirror therapy is the use of a mirror to reverse image of a body part to the brain.

any type of damage to the left side of the head often experience these disabilities. Strokes can also cause severe issues with these parts of the brain as well (Broca’s Area vs. Wernicke’s Area).

The findings of Oliver Slack along with Vuilleumier & Schwartz reveal further insight into the psychological impairment known as unilateral neglect. This condition commonly occurs in individuals that have survived strokes. Unilateral neglect is the phenomenon in which an individual is unable to attend to one side of space within their environment. One’s side of space refers to only experiencing either the left or right side of possible incoming stimuli depending on physical orientation. Looking at the stimuli that is affected, individuals with this condition are unable to hear sounds or visually see the space that is ignored. Think of it as holding a piece of paper perpendicular to one’s face, aligned in the middle with the nose, and only being able to attend to either the left or right side of incoming stimuli. The range of space that is unnoticed depends on the individual and the severity

Clients suffering from stroke have slow speech loss of memory, speechless one side of their body paralysed which cause restriction to their movement.

1. Every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke (National Stroke Association, 2014). Some symptoms related with a stroke are headache, blurred vision, trouble speaking, confusion, dizziness and numbness on one side of body. These symptoms are very important to know. Due to how common strokes are it's good to know the warning signs. For every person that dies from stroke, more than 5 times that many will survive, and for them the physical damage it causes can be enormous (National Stroke Association, 2014). Most people who have a stroke are depressed after it's all said and done. They may be paralyzed on one side, have a speech impairment or worse. When you are used to living a certain way and that suddenly changes it can be hard for people to deal with.

However, their cause is from the stroke on their left brain, which resulted in malfunction and paralyse on the right side of body. Stroke is a life threatening condition when the brain is cut off from the blood supply. MRI scan was used to show the damage on the part of their brains. Different part of the brain damaged can have different effect on victims. For Anna and Patricia, they needed help with basic activities of moving arms and legs, sitting up, dressing, using toilet, and basic conversation.

Hemineglect also known as unilateral spatial neglect, hemispatial neglect, hemi-inattention, hemisensory, parietal neglect or spatial neglect (Kerkhoff, 2000), is a condition in which patients are unable to attend and respond to the contralesional side of space (Dijkerman, Webling, ter Wal, Groet, & van Zandvoort, 2003). Hemineglect is characterized by the lack of spatial awareness, most commonly on the left hemispace (Parton & Malhotra & Husain, 2004). The most common form of hemineglect, is that of patients who have right hemisphere lesions commonly found to damage the ‘where’ pathway, most commonly after a stroke. These kinds of patients tend to neglect the left hand side of space (Driver & Mattingley, 1998). Although it is not

In some case patients may have more than just these symptoms such as paralysis or weakness on the right side of the body, vision on the right maybe limited or decreased (hemianopsia), object recognition (apraxia), memory of said words, etc. These symptoms vary according to the area of injury.

When a word or picture falls to the left of the point, the information goes to his disconnected right half brain. Joe is unable to name it but he can draw the picture with his left hand which gets its major control from the right half brain. Even though he can’t name it his left hand can draw the picture of the picture or word presented to his right half brain. In patients like Joe with split-brain syndrome the right hemisphere, acts independently of the left hemisphere and the person’s ability to make rational decisions. This can results in split consciousness whereby the left hemisphere give orders that reflect the person’s rational goals whereas the right hemisphere issues conflicting demands that reveal hidden behaviours

Hemi spatial neglect is a condition in which patients fail to respond to stimuli on the side of the body opposite the brain injury (Myers & Blake, 2008) Neglect may be caused by injury in either brain hemisphere, however, it is more sever and persistent after a right hemisphere brain injury (Brookshire, 2015). Many deficits exist

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor had an amazing experience that most people do not get to tell after the fact. Especially because she is a neuroanatomist who knew what was happening and what parts of the brain were being affected. This book is informational on many different levels and to many different types of people. This book can warn people about the signs of when someone is having a stroke. This information could save many lives if someone were to read this book and realize they were having a stroke soon enough to call for help. It can be helpful for the treatment of stroke victims, average people looking to gain insight on life and how to better themselves, and to many professionals who know all of the science behind a stroke, but do not know

Brain foundation 2011, A-Z of disorders, Stroke, Brain Foundation, Sydney, viewed 30 June 2011, .

Hemiplegia is defined as the complete loss of movement or sensation to an entire half of the body. Hemiparesis is a partial loss of sensation or movement throughout one side of the body. Both hemiplegia and hemiparesis are common after a person has had a severe stroke. According to the Center for Disease Control “Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of adult disability. About 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year” (Stroke Statistics, 2015). A stroke occurs when a blood vessel bursts and oxygen is not being transported to the brain properly. The Stroke Center, a leading independent information provider on strokes, states, “Stroke is the leading cause of serious, long term