[A case of cerebral vascular disease associated with prosopagnosia and minor hemisphere syndrome (author's transl)].

A case of "apractognosia", a syndrome of minor hemisphere, and prosopagnosia was described. A 68 years old, right handed, hypertensive man who had experienced an episode of left hemiparesis of several weeks' duration developed a syndrome of minor hemisphere, metamorphopsia, visuoconstructive disability, spatial dysgraphia, topographical and geographical disorientation and dressing apraxia, with associated left homonymous hemianopsia. A right occipital lesion was disclosed by an isotopic brain scan and a CT scan. The CT scan also disclosed a generalized cerebral atrophy. Memory disturbance, both verbal and visual, was observed. Verbal memory was examined by coupled words test, digit span and 10-words learning test, and visual memory by spatial pointing span and memorizing unfamiliar faces. The patient was able to differentiate unfamiliar faces, but was not able to memorize them correctly. Although the patient has complained of a disturbance of recognizing familiar faces (prosopagnosia), but actually, sometimes he was able to recognize the members of his family by the faces and sometimes he was not. He has stated that he could not recall familiar faces. The authors suggested prosopagnosia is, as Benton (1975) has supposed, considered to be the limited disorders of memory and association.