SYMPTOMS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: PARIETAL LOBE CHANGES

The parietal lobe puts together all the information that our brains obtain in order to allow us to undertake quite complicated activities. For instance one of the characteristic problems experienced relatively early in the course of Alzheimer’s is difficulty with operating machinery or equipment such as a washing machine or television, and later with dressing. Difficulties like this, which are not caused by a specific abnormality in one of the nervous pathways outside the brain, are called apraxias. The presence of apraxias for a variety of activities usually indicates that the disease is going to progress fairly rapidly.

The parietal lobe also integrates the information that is obtained from the senses. Most people will be able to distinguish between a ten pence piece and a fifty pence piece when put in their hand, even if their eyes are closed so that they can’t see what the coin looks like. A person with parietal lobe damage won’t be able to do this and is said to be suffering from an agnosia.

A frequently employed test of parietal lobe function, which is really trying to elicit evidence of the presence of apraxia, is to ask the subject to draw or copy a diagram. This may be a simple clock-face or a more complicated structure such as intersecting geometric shapes.

*28\138\2*