You are trying to diagnose a patient with a posterior parietal cortex lesion. You ask him to draw a flower, and he draws the picture below. What might you diagnose?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To approach this question, we start by linking the clinical scenario to the most likely deficit from a posterior parietal cortex lesion and a drawing task.
Option a) Hemispatial neglect: This disorder arises from right parietal damage (often) and causes neglect of the contralateral (usually left) side of space. In a drawing task, a patient might omit or under-represent elements on the neglected side, leading to an asymmetrical or incomplete flower drawing. The pictured drawing (with elements clustered on one side) is characteristic of neglect, making this the most plausible diagnosis.
Option b) Gerstmann’s syndrome: This constellation includes agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and left–right disorientation, which stems from dominant inferior parietal/left parietal damage. While it involves parietal regions, it presents with language- and calculation-related deficits rather than a primary spatial attention bias seen in hemispatial neglect. The single drawing task provided does not illustrate the core features of Gerstmann’s syndrome, so this is unlikely.
Option c) Apraxia: Apraxia is a disorder of motor planning or execution, often due to parietal or premotor damage, causing difficulty performing purposeful movements. In a simple drawing task, apraxia would more likely manifest as an inability to imitate gestures or poor sequencing of movements, rather than a spatial neglect pattern where part of the scene is simply ignored. The drawing provided aligns more with neglect than with apraxia.
Option d) Anton’s syndrome: This rare condition is cortical blindness with anosognosia, where the patient denies being blind. It involves visual loss and denial, not a unilateral neglect pattern in drawing tasks. The scenario does not describe blindness or denial of vision, so this is not fitting.
Option e) None of the above would be diagnosed for this patient: Given the likely presence of a contralesional spatial neglect in the drawing task after posterior parietal damage, this option would be incorrect because there is a classic syndrome that matches the presentation.
In summary, the most consistent explanation for a drawing from a posterior parietal cortex lesion showing unilateral spatial underrepresentation is hemispatial neglect, while the other options do not align with the described presentation or the specific drawing task.

You are trying to diagnose a patient with a posterior parietal cortex lesion. You ask him to draw a flower, and he draws the picture below. What might you diagnose?

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