Callosal disconnection syndrome and knowledge of the body: a case of left hand isolation from the body schema with names.

A patient is described who presented with a disturbance of body cognition confined to the left side of the body. She showed difficulties in naming the left fingers and in moving the named left fingers. She also showed great difficulty in pointing to named parts of the body with her left hand. Earlier in the course of the disease she showed a personification phenomenon of the left hand. Brain MRI showed involvement of the entire corpus callosum, probably due to occlusion of a branch of the anterior cerebral artery. It is speculated that this syndrome is caused by disconnection of the right hemisphere from the left hemispheric body schema.