Sensory Deficits

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Sensory Deficits

• Hyposmia, High frequency hearing loss, and
  Bilateral left
• Hemianopia

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The Problem

• Ms. Windsong suffered a head injury from an MVA.
  She injured her right ear, her right occipital
  lobe, her right temporal lobe, and parts of her
  diencephalon.
• She has the following sensory deficits hyposmia,
  high frequency hearing loss, and bilateral left
  hemianopia.

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Visual Fields Binocular Vision
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Hemianopia

• Defective vision or blindness in half of the
  visual field of one or both eyes
• Bilateral left hemianopia hemianhopia affecting
  the let side of both eyes.

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Hyposmia

• Hyposmia Diminished sense of smell therefore
  causing a diminished sense of taste
• Problems caused by hyposmia
• Impairs ability to determine flavors of food
  and beverages.
• Impairs detection of environmental hazards
  (smelling smoke in burning building)
• Diminishes overall quality of life

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Olfaction

• Olfaction allows us to discriminate between
  thousands of different odors.
• Olfactory bulb receives input from primary
  olfactory neurons.
• Odor messages travel to olfactory cortex though
  secondary and higher neurons of the olfactory
  bulbs.
• Olfactory cortex has connections to limbic system
  so smell activates intense feelings and memories.
• Messages also travel to conscious cortical areas
  and enters the thalamus.

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Olfactory Pathway
Injury to the diencephalons affects the brain
altering ability to smell and generate powerful
emotional responses from odors.

• Trauma to the head can cause shearing/tearing in
  axons of olfactory cell receptors or damage to
  the olfactory cortex resulting in hyposmia.

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Hearing Loss

• Ms. Windsongs high frequecny hearing loss is due
  to trauma to the temporal lobe or inner ear.
• Damage to the cochlea stops the nerve impulses
  being sent by the hair cells from reaching the
  auditory cortex (loss of sensation).
• Damage to auditory cortex results in loss of
  perception of sound.

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Auditory Pathway
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Analogy

• Spaghetti in strainer- relevant anatomy
• Spaghetti sticks together into giant, sticky
  (brain-like) pasta ball
• Shaking strainer roughly (MVA), might shear off
  bits of spaghetti poking through strainer holes.