The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

Full Text of this Article
in Japanese PDF (424K)

ArticleTitle	Pusher syndrome
Language	J
AuthorList	Shinichiro Maeshima, Aiko Osawa
Affiliation	Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 27 (4), 326-333, 2011
Received
Accepted
Abstract	Despite an increasing interest by researchers and clinicians, the pusher syndrome (PS) is still a poorly understood disorder, exhibited by some stroke patients, who push with their non-affected limbs towards the contralesional side and resist attempts at correction of their tilted posture. Some investigations stressed the role of posterior lateral thalamus, but other findings revealed that different lesional sites may also be present. Therefore, localization of brain lesions is also controversial. It may occur with or without hemispatial neglect, which in itself may be the cause of a usually ipsilesional shift of attention and body orientation in the axial plane. According to different findings, it has been suggested that PS may result from a conflict between an intact visual and an impaired somesthetic perception of vertical, or alternatively that it might result from a high-order disruption of somesthetic information processing from the paretic hemi-body, named graviceptive neglect. On the basis of these data, the existence of a multicomponential network reliable for upright posture control might be suggested. In this review, we summarized findings on controversial issues regarding PS, definition, evaluations of PS, namely correlation with neglect, neural correlates and underlying mechanisms, and rehabilitation.
Keywords	pusher syndrome, unilateral spatial neglect, stroke