ABSTRACT

Dementia is a neurodegenerative condition with progressive decline in cognitive faculties and associated with different clinical phenomena. Mirror phenomenon in terms of both mirror agnosia and mirror image agnosia wherein there is difficulty in processing and perception of reflected images is not uncommonly seen, and understanding the same can contribute to early diagnosis and prognostication. We report two elderly women with Alzheimer’s dementia and frontotemporal dementia, respectively, presenting with features of abnormalities in mirror image processing. The former had features of both mirror agnosia and mirror image agnosia and the latter had predominantly features of mirror image agnosia with preoccupation with her mirror image. Understanding neuroanatomical networks underlying these phenomena can help early identification and subtyping dementia. Clinically differentiating these phenomena from psychotic symptoms of dementia can help in initiating appropriate non-pharmacological measures rather than resorting to use of psychotropics, the use of which may be counterproductive.

摘要

痴呆症是一种神经退行性疾病，认知能力逐渐下降，并与不同的临床现象有关。镜像失认症和镜像失认症中的镜像现象，其中处理困难并且对反射图像的感知并不少见，并且理解相同可以有助于早期诊断和预测。我们分别报告了两名患有阿尔茨海默病痴呆和额颞叶痴呆的老年妇女，她们在镜像处理中呈现出异常的特征。前者兼具镜像失认症和镜像失认症的特征，后者以镜像失认症为主，专注于自己的镜像。了解这些现象背后的神经解剖网络有助于早期识别和分型痴呆。在临床上将这些现象与痴呆的精神病症状区分开来有助于启动适当的非药物措施，而不是诉诸使用精神药物，使用可能会适得其反。