6 Curious and Interesting Neurological Disorders

Get to know these neurological disorders that are commonly mistaken with mental disorders, besides, some of these are very peculiar!

Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis

This immune disorder causes swelling on the brain. It is curious because frequently it looks like the patient is possessed by a demon (like a horror movie scene), it causes hallucinations, delusions, violence, involuntary movements, and epilepsy. It is estimated that up to 90% of these cases can happen unnoticed and be mistakenly confused with other disorder. Sadnly even with treatment, 7% of these patients die and some others live with serious consequences (cerebral damage going from mild to severe). There is no cure, just remission and this is accomplished with immunotherapy treatment.

Othello syndrome

It is called Othello because of the character from Shakespeare’s play. It is characterized pathological jealousy to their partner, it presents delusions and even hallucinations in some cases. These patients can have episodes in a extreme violent form, result of their highly convincing delusions.

It is more common to be seen on patients older than 68 years old, frequently this is associated with dementia. Approximately 77% of those who suffer this disorder also have some other neurological disorder affecting their brain. This can also appear in patients on dopamine prescribed to treat Parkinson

Sensory desynchronization

This disorder makes the patient hear a person before he seed them speak. It is like watching a movie with desynchronized audio and image. They can even hear their own voice before their own lips move. Scientists claim that our brain process the sound and images at different speed. this process looks to be affected on these patients, like if all their brain processes were desynchronized and not fixing their time differences correctly. It appears frequently on brain injuries.

Misophonia

It is a tolerance to weak sounds (the opposite to patients with hearing loss). Listening to someone chewing gum or the sound of a fly can drive them crazy, speeding up their heart rate and filling them up with anger or anxiety. Frequently they are not capable to handle their reactions (screaming or getting violent) due to their extreme sensitivity, it is like it was 200 times more intense than for the rest of us. This is a problem often seen on toddlers or young people and it tends to get worse as they grow up. It is a neurological disorder with origins of a failure in brain connections with the part of the brain in charge of emotions.

Congenital Topographical Disorientation

As the name says it, it is a neurological disorder that prevents a person to get orient or travel through everywhere, including their own home or known places. This disorder is very well known and not commonly treated because the affected zones don´t show up in scanners. Some state that the problem is because the different brain areas in charge of creating mental maps do not communicate themselves. It is like if the compasses in our brain had issues.

Musical Hallucination

Even though this disorder may appear in some other diseases like depression or schizophrenia, truth is, it appear commonly in older people with hearing problems in which the brain mistakenly predicts what is going to hear. Studying the brain, it was confirmed that, in fact, it listens some notes and predicts what follows based on previous experiences. As mistakes appear more frequently and intensify, these tend to get real for those who have it.

In these cases the best is to spread knowledge about their existence, even though many of these are non-curable it is true that frequently the symptoms can be treated to improve the patient´s life quality and in those that are curable the sooner you know you have it the better the result!