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Abstract Immediately following an acute transverse lesion of the spinal cord there ensues a state known as spinal shock.1 Although not always recognized as such, an analogous situation can occur at more rostral levels, appearing, for example, subsequent to a rapidly developing lesion of a cerebral hemisphere. From clinical observations, von Monakow2 formulated the concept that a transient depression of function can occur at a distance from a circumscribed lesion of the brain. He applied the term diaschisis to designate this circumstance. It is pointed out by Riese3 that von Monakow's ideas have received little emphasis by English-writing neurologists. Riese suggests that this is because von Monakow's best-known publication, "Die Lokalisation im Grosshirn," appeared in Germany in 1914, at about the time of the outbreak of the First World War. He also emphasizes that this work has been little read in the United States, possibly because of the References 1. To avoid confusion with precedents of usage, the term inhibition is avoided in this communication. Instead, the change is designated simply as a depressive effect. 2. Sherrington, C. S.: The Integrative Action of the Nervous System , New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1906. 3. von Monakow, C.: Die Lokalisation im Grosshirn und der Abbau der Funktion durch kortikale Herde , Weisbaden, J. F. Bergmann, 1914. 4. Riese, W.: Principles of Neurology in the Light of History and Their Present Use , New York, Nervous and Mental Disease Monographs, 1950. 5. Blakiston's New Gould Medical Dictionary , edited by H. W. Jones, N. L. Hoerr, and A. Osol, Philadelphia, The Blakiston Company, 1949. 6. Grinker, R. R., and Bucy, P. C.: Neurology , Ed. 4, Springfield, Ill., Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 1949. 7. Cerebral Vascular Disease, Transactions of a Conference Held Under the Auspices of the American Heart Association , I. S. Wright, chairman; edited by E. H. Luckey, New York, Grune & Stratton, Inc., 1955. 8. Bishop, G. H., and Clare, M. H.: Responses of Cortex to Direct Electrical Stimuli Applied at Different Depths , J. Neurophysiol. 16:1-19, 1953. 9. Marshall, W. H.: An Application of the Frozen Sectioning Technic for Cutting Serial Sections Through the Brain , Stain Technol. 15: 133-138, 1940. 10. Kempinsky, W. H.: Steady Potential Gradients in Experimental Cerebral Vascular Occlusion , Electroencephalog. & Clin. Neurophysiol. 6:375-388, 1954. 11. Bishop, G. H.: Personal communication to the author. 12. Bishop, G. H., and Clare, M. H.: Sites of Origin of Electric Potentials in Striate Cortex , J. Neurophysiol. 15:201-220, 1952. 13. Bishop, G. H., and Clare, M. H.: Radiation Path from Geniculate to Optic Cortex in Cat , J. Neurophysiol. 14:497-505, 1951. 14. Noell, W. K., and Chinn, H. I.: Failure of the Visual Pathway During Anoxia , Am. J. Physiol. 161:573-590, 1950. 15. Kempinsky, W. H.: Spatially Remote Effects of Focal Brain Injury: Relation to Diaschisis , Tr. Am. Neurol. A. 81:79-82, 1956.
A.M.A. Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry – American Medical Association
Published: Apr 1, 1958
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