Nonhemorrhagic infarction of the thalamus: behavioral, anatomic, and physiologic correlates.

We studied five patients with nonhemorrhagic thalamic infarction with neuropsychological tests, CT, and somatosensory evoked responses (SERs). The three patients with left thalamic lesions had abnormalities of language, memory, visuospatial processing, intellect, and personality-changes compatible with dementia. The two patients with right thalamic lesions were not aphasic and did not have verbal memory defects, but were otherwise comparable. Four lesions occurred in the tuberothalamic artery territory and one in the deep interpeduncular artery territory. SERs revealed a delay in the first negative peak after P14 in the tuberothalamic patients, and a delay in the third negative peak (N60) in all patients.