Hermann Zingerleʹs “Impaired Perception of the own Body Due to Organic Brain Disorders”: An Introductory Comment, and an Abridged Translation

In the late 1970ʹs Edoardo Bisiach and his coworkers provided definitive evidence that spatial unilateral neglect involves a disorder of the internal representation of extra-personal space. A few years later Bisiach and Berti (1987) revived the so far neglected contribution of an Austrian neurologist, Hermann Zingerle (1913). Ninety years ago Zingerle had described the symptom-complex of two right-brain-damaged patients, who showed left hemisomatoagnosia, unawareness of left hemiplegia, and left motor neglect. In addition to the detailed case reports, Zingerle had put forward a unitary interpretation of these deficits in terms of a disordered representation of one side of the body (dyschiria). A unitary representational account of these unilateral impairments was conspicuously absent in the contemporary neurological literature (Anton, Pick, Babinski), and attracted Bisiachʹs interest. An abridged translation of Zingerleʹs paper is provided. The clinical case reports and Zingerleʹs conclusions are discussed, with reference both to Bisiachʹs views, and to present knowledge of unilateral spatial neglect.