Abstract
This detailed clinical report of a typical Capgras delusion (CD) in a demented patient is presented in order to foster future descriptions in neurological cases. In the framework of a recently developed model of familiar person processing, it is suggested that CD might be due to a dysfunction at the level of Person Identity Nodes. Prefrontal impairment is held to represent a critical factor leading to a failure of belief evaluation.
Sommario
Viene presentata la descrizione dettagliata di un caso di sindrome di Capgras in un paziente affetto da demenza allo scopo di evidenziarne gli aspetti clinici e comportamentali più rilevanti ai fini delle future descrizioni di simili casi neurologici. Facendo riferimento ai modelli cognitivi relativi al riconoscimento e identificazione di persone familiari, si propone che la sindrome di Capgras sia conseguente a un danno a livello dei Person Identity Nodes. Si ipotizza inoltre un deficit prefrontale come fattore critico per determinare l’incapacità di rifiutare come assurda la reduplicazione.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Capgras J, Reboul-Lachaux J (1923) L’illusion des “Sosies” dans un délire systématisé chronique. Bulletin de la Société Clinique de Médecine Mentale 2:6–16
Breen N, Caine D, Coltheart M (2001) Mirrored-self misidentification: two cases of focal onset dementia. Neurocase 7:239–254
Silva JA, Leong GB, Weinstock R et al (1994) Delusional misidentification syndromes and dangerousness. Psychopathology 27:215–219
Lucchelli F, Spinnler H. A reappraisal of person recognition and identification. Cortex (in press)
Neary D, Snowden JS, Gustafson L et al (1998) Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a consensus on clinical diagnostic criteria. Neurology 51:1546–1554
McKeith IG, Galasko D, Kosaka K et al (1996) Consensus guidelines for the clinical and pathologic diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB): report of the consortium on DLB international workshop. Neurology 47:1113–1124
Brazzelli M, Capitani E, Della Sala S et al (1994) A neuropsychological instrument adding to the description of patients with suspected cortical dementia: the Milan Overall Dementia Assessment. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 57:1510–1517
Basso A, Capitani E, Laiacona M (1987) Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices: normative values on 305 adult normal controls. Funct Neurol 2:189–194
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR (1975) “Mini-Mental State”. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 12:189–198
Della Sala S, Laiacona M, Spinnler H, Ubezio C (1992) A cancellation test: its reliability in assessing attentional deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Psychol Med 22:885–901
Spinnler H, Tognoni G (1987) Taratura e standardizzazione italiana di test neuropsicologici. Italian J Neurol Sci 8[Suppl. 6]:8–120
De Renzi E, Faglioni P, Ruggerini C (1977) Prove di memoria verbale di impiego clinico per la diagnosi di amnesia. Arch Psicol Neurol Psichiatr 38:303–308
De Renzi E, Faglioni P, Previdi P (1977) Spatial memory and hemispheric locus of lesion. Cortex 13:424–433
De Renzi E, Zambolin A, Crisi G (1987) The pattern of neuropsychological impairment associated with left posterior cerebral artery infarcts. Brain 110:1099–1116
Warrington EK, James M (1988) Visual apperceptive agnosia. A clinico-anatomical study of three cases. Cortex 24:13–32
Faglioni P, Cremonini A, De Renzi E (1991) Taratura su soggetti normali di test di facce sconosciute e familiari. Arch Psicol Neurol Psichiatr 52:3339–3350
Ekman P, Friesen WV (1975) Pictures of facial affect. Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto
Rapcsak SZ, Polster MR, Glisky ML, Comer JF (1996) False recognition of unfamiliar faces following right hemisphere damage: neuropsychological and anatomical observations. Cortex 32:593–611
Ward J, Parkin AJ, Powell G et al (1999) False recognition of unfamiliar people: seeing film stars everywhere. Cogn Neuropsychol 16:293–316
Bruce V, Young A (1986) Understanding face recognition. Br J Psychol 77:305–327
Bauer R (1984) Autonomic recognition of names and faces: a neuropsychological application of the Guilty Knowledge Test. Neuropsychologia 22:457–469
Bauer R (1986) The cognitive psychophysiology of prosopagnosia. In: Ellis H, Jeeves M, Newcombe F, Young A (eds) Aspects of face processing. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 253–267
Ellis HD, Young AW (1990) Accounting for delusional misidentifications. Br J Psychiatry 157:239–248
Ellis HD, Young AW, Quayle AH, dePauw KW (1997) Reduced autonomic responses to faces in Capgras delusion. Proc R Soc Lond 264:1085–1092
Hirstein W, Ramachandran VS (1997) Capgras syndrome: a novel probe for understanding the neural representation of the identity and familiarity of persons. Proc R Soc Lond 264:437–444
Breen N, Caine D, Coltheart M (2000) Models of face recognition and delusional misidentification: a critical review. Cogn Neuropsychol 17:55–71
Ellis HD, Lewis MB (2001) Capgras delusion: a window on face recognition. Trends Cogn Sci 5:149–156
Farah MJ, O’Reilly RC, Vecera SP (1993) Dissociated overt and covert recognition as an emergent property of a lesioned neural network. Psychol Rev 100:571–588
Sperber S, Spinnler H (2003) Covert person recognition: its fadeout in a case of temporal lobe degeneration. Cortex 39:57–67
Alexander MP, Stuss D, Benson DF (1979) Capgras syndrome: a reduplicative phenomenon. Neurology 29:334–339
Staton RD, Brumback RA, Wilson H (1982) Reduplicative paramnesia: a disconnection syndrome of memory. Cortex 18:23–36
Lewis MB, Sherwood S, Moselhy H, Ellis HD (2001) Autonomic responses to familiar faces without autonomic responses to familiar voices: evidence for voice-specific Capgras delusion. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 6:217–228
Langdon R, Coltheart M (2000) The cognitive neuropsychology of delusions. Mind Lang 15:184–218
Davies M, Coltheart M, Langdon R, Breen N (2002) Monothematic delusions: towards a two-factor account. Philos Psychiatr Psychol 8:133–158
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Note Following our normal practice, names are listed in alphabetical order. This does not indicate different contribution to the paper
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lucchelli, F., Spinnler, H. The case of lost Wilma: a clinical report of Capgras delusion. Neurol Sci 28, 188–195 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-007-0819-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-007-0819-8