“The consistency of our behavior is fragile, certain brain lesions are enough to break it”recalls Laurent Cohen, neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. This is evidenced by the story of Mr. Z., whom he saw in consultation in the late 1990s. Three years earlier, this 76 -year -old man had been the victim of a stroke. He was walking normally, ate and toilet without assistance; His word was fluid; His uncompromising emotions. Despite a visual field amputated from his right half, he kept a correct vision in the left half of this field. Having become unable to read, he could always write.
A few simple tests, however, revealed unsuspected mental consequences but “Spectacular”note Laurent Cohen. The latter showed him in turn a toothbrush, a salt shaker, a fork, or a candle, a pencil … To the question, ” what is this ? »», Mr. Z., yet neither denied nor delusional, inevitably replied “A thermometer”. “The paradox was that this patient knew how to use each of these objects perfectly, that he all called thermometer”says the neurologist.
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