Practice question · Multiple choice
A patient with a small pontine stroke is fully conscious, thinking normally, and can move only their eyes. What does locked-in syndrome show about the brainstem?
Hints
- Compare with the coma case in this unit. There, a small brainstem lesion abolished awareness. Why not here?
- Ask what is severed and what is spared.
Show the answer
C. That it carries the motor output rather than generating the mind
Why
Two brainstem lesions, two entirely different results: damage the arousal system and awareness goes, damage the descending motor tracts and awareness stays with nowhere to go. The pons is a cable here, and locked-in syndrome is the most frightening demonstration in neurology that output is not the same as mind.
Practise The Brainstem and Cerebellum
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