What happens if you damage the thalamus?
While thalamus damage primarily causes sensory problems, it can also lead to behavioral and cognitive changes. For example, many patients with a thalamus injury have incorrect speech patterns and can struggle to find the right words. Others display apathy and memory problems.
What happens when the thalamus is damaged by a stroke?
A thalamic stroke may result in memory loss (vascular thalamic amnesia) that can affect long- or short-term memory. It can also be accompanied by a shift in personality. Changes in attention. Attention, along with memory, is a high-level cognitive skill that the thalamus plays a role in.
What does the thalamus control in the brain?
While the thalamus is classically known for its roles as a sensory relay in visual, auditory, somatosensory, and gustatory systems, it also has significant roles in motor activity, emotion, memory, arousal, and other sensorimotor association functions.
What is the thalamus responsible for?
The thalamus is a mostly gray matter structure of the diencephalon that has many essential roles in human physiology. The thalamus is composed of different nuclei that each serve a unique role, ranging from relaying sensory and motor signals, as well as regulation of consciousness and alertness.
Can the thalamus heal?
Not much is known about the basics of neuroplasticity of TBI and brain structures involved in it. Our review provides evidence that thalamus is naturally involved in recovery process as in mild TBIs.
What are the symptoms of a damaged hypothalamus?
What are the symptoms of hypothalamic dysfunction?
- Fatigue.
- Weakness.
- Lack of interest in activities (anhedonia)
- Headache.
- Loss of vision.
- Unusually high or low blood pressure.
- Frequent thirst.
- Body temperature fluctuations.
What is thalamus responsible for?
Does the thalamus control pain?
Studies have suggested that the thalamus is an important structure that mediates different components of pain: sensory discriminative (lateral pain pathway) and affective-motivational (medial pain pathway) components.
What is under the thalamus?
The hypothalamus is located below the thalamus just above the brain stem. In the terminology of neuroanatomy, it forms the ventral part of the diencephalon. All vertebrate brains contain a hypothalamus.
What happens when you damage the thalamus in the brain?
Most often, the movement disorders involved dystonia, or involuntary muscle contractions. This is probably because the thalamus is involved in relaying information on motor movement from one area of the brain to another, according to Dartmouth Medical School. Thalamic damage can also cause insomnia and other sleep disorders.
What are the symptoms of a thalamus lesion?
Difficulties referred to are: visual field loss, decreased taste, reduced pain sensation, decreased sensation in one side of the body, word finding difficulties. Which problem occurs is dependent on the location of the lesion in the thalamus.
What is the cause of a thalamic stroke?
Strokes are caused by a disruption of blood flow to your brain. Without blood and nutrients, your brain tissue quickly begins to die, which can have lasting effects. A thalamic stroke is a type of lacunar stroke, which refers to a stroke in a deep part of your brain.
How does a thalamic infarct affect the right side of the brain?
If a thalamic infarct occurs on the left side of the thalamus, then the right side of the brain is impacted. Significant damage to the thalamus can negatively impact a person’s ability to communicate and it may even impair some hearing functionality depending on the location.