Gerstmann Syndrome

Gerstmann Syndrome

The Gerstmann syndrome, or angular gyrus syndrome, consists of acalculia, agraphia (of central type), finger agnosia, and right-left disorientation; there may in addition be alexia and difficulty spelling words but these are not necessary parts of the syndrome. Gerstmann syndrome occurs with lesions of the angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus in the posterior parietotemporal region of the dominant (usually left) hemisphere, for example infarction in the territory of the middle cerebral artery.
All the signs comprising Gerstmann syndrome do fractionate or dissociate, i.e., they are not causally related, or representative of a unitary neuropsychological function, as was once suggested. Nonetheless the Gerstmann syndrome remains useful for the purposes of clinical localization.

References

Benton AL. Gerstmann’s syndrome. Archives of Neurology 1992; 49: 445-447
Mayer E, Martory M-D, Pegna AJ et al. A pure case of Gerstmann’s syndrome with a subangular lesion. Brain 1999; 122: 1107-1120 Pearce JMS. Gerstmann’s syndrome. In: Pearce JMS. Fragments of neurological history. London: Imperial College Press, 2003: 92-94

Cross References

Acalculia; Agraphia; Alexia; Finger agnosia; Right-left disorientation