anosognosia, n. Path.
(æˌnɒsɒgˈnəʊsɪə)
Also anosagnosia (æˌnɒsægˈnəʊsɪə).
[ad. F. anosognosie (coined by M. J. Babinski 1914, in Rev. Neurologique XXVII. 846): see a- 14, noso-, gnosis n., -ia1. Anogasnosia after agnosia, prosopagnosia, simult(an)agnosia.]
Unawareness of or failure to acknowledge one's hemiplegia or other disability.
| 1915 Med. Rec. (N.Y.) 27 Mar. 521/2 Recently Babinski observed in two cases of organic cerebral hemiplegia that the patients ignored or appeared to ignore the existence of the paralysis with which they were affected. To this condition he gave the name anosognosia. 1937 Bull. Los Angeles Neurol. Soc. II. 103 We have reported six cases in which anosognosia was an important element in the clinical picture. 1961 R. Brain Speech Disorders xiv. 168 Babinski (1914) first used the term anosognosia to describe unawareness of hemiplegia. Since it means imperception of disease, however, it is now more generally applied to cover unawareness of hemiplegia, blindness, deafness and aphasia. 1985 O. Sacks Man who mistook Wife 3 It is impossible, for patients with certain right-hemisphere syndromes to know their own problems—a peculiar and specific ‘anosagnosia’, as Babinski called it. 1991 New Scientist 9 Feb. 52/1 Another aspect of awareness is revealed in neurological patients who are unaware of their impairments (anosagnosia) and fail to comprehend their problems, or even deny them. |