Attention and Perception Related aspects in Balint syndrome-Neuropsychological and Neurophysiological prospects

Balint syndrome is an uncommon and incompletely understood triad of neuropsychological impairments. Balint syndrome is characterized by dysmetria secondary to visual perceptive defect and inability to recognize more than one object at a time. Balint’s syndrome most often occurs with an acute onset as a consequence of two or more strokes at more or less the same place in each hemisphere, therefore it occurs rarely. Disorders such as tumours, trauma, near drowning, Eclampsia, drug toxicity, HIV encephalitis, Alzheimer’s can also leads to balint syndrome.  It is a strange combination of optic ataxia, Gaze apraxia, Simultanagnosia. Although it has been generally constructed as a biparietal syndrome causing an inability to see more than one object at a time, other lesions and mechanisms are also possible. Key syndrome components are dissociable and comprise a range of disturbances that overlap the hemineglect syndrome. Balint syndrome usually from large and more or less symmetrical lesions involving the posterior parietal region, including extensively the superior parietal lobe, as well as part of the inferior parietal lobe and the superior part of the occipital lobe. Diagnosis of individual components and of the whole syndrome may remain difficult, particularly when elementary motor, sensory, and visual deficits coexist.  Lack of awareness of this syndrome may lead to misdiagnosis and resulting inappropriate or inadequate treatment, therefore clinicians and other healthcare professionals should be familiar with the balint syndrome.  The goal of this review is to explore a range of anatomical and psychological explanations for this disorder.