Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome: symptoms and causes

This alteration causes that some people are not able to remember the images seen in dreams.

Dreams, mental manifestations that happen while we sleep and that, although it has been demonstrated that they are associated with a reprocessing of memory information and emotions, still harbor numerous enigmas and mysteries.

Better or worse, dreams play an essential role in our mental health. So what would happen if we stopped dreaming? A similar phenomenon occurs with Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome, which we will discuss later.which we will talk about throughout this article.

What is Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome?

The Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome is a rare neurological condition in which the person who suffers from it experiences the sensation that he/she has lost the ability to dream.. However, what actually happens is that the patient suffers from visual agnosia accompanied by the loss of the ability to mentally recall or retrieve images in the mind; since according to studies the REM sleep processes remain intact.

During the time we are asleep, our brain activity goes through five distinct phases. The last of these, known as REM sleep phase (translated as Rapid Eye Movement) is characterized by intense brain activity. Thanks to this activity we can dream and our brain is able to capture information from our environment even though we are asleep.

Although at first glance it may seem that Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome is caused by some kind of abnormality in the brain activity of this phase, the truth is that studies point to the idea that, in reality, a lesion in the occipital lobe of the brain may be the cause of Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome, a lesion in the occipital lobe of the occipital may be the primary genesis of this sleep disorder.

The condition is named after case studies conducted by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and ophthalmology researcher Hermann Wilbrand. Although they worked separately, each made important contributions to the study of this syndrome.

As for Charcot's research, it helped determine that the main manifestation of the syndrome is the following the lack of the ability to remember the images produced in dreams. This implies the discovery that the person can dream, but is unable to remember it. As for Wilbrand's contribution, it revolves around the discovery of the presence of agnosias as possible lateral conditions.

Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome is considered a rare condition since it has a very low incidence in the population. Although this implies a lack of studies investigating it, it has been recognized as a condition related to focal brain damage.

Possible negative effects

Although patients with this syndrome do not tend to suffer from a serious clinical picture or detrimental effects derived from the clinical picture, it is hypothesized that dreams promote some relatively important functions for the person's mental health. Among these benefits is the capacity that dreams have to favor learning processes.

In the same way, it has been postulated that a complete impairment of the ability to dream, or in this case to remember what was dreamt, may be linked to the development of obsessive states and even to the suffering of certain types of hallucinations. Finally, some theories state that dreams help in emotional development and preservation, and that the expression of emotions in dreams can enhance or help the expression of emotions in reality..

What symptoms does it present?

There are two different classifications that include the symptomatology of Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome. The first one is based on the studies carried out by the researchers of the syndrome described above. While the second classification, much more current, is based on the type of lesion that causes it and on the analysis of the REM sleep of patients.

1. Traditional classification

Following the first studies, the symptomatology of Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome was reduced to the following symptoms:

• Visual reminiscence problems.
• Prosopagnosia.
• Topographic agnosia.

2. Modern classification

However, the most recent studies describe the clinical picture of this syndrome based on the type of lesion and REM sleep evaluation of the patients. These case studies were performed by performing tests such as polysomnography, which studies multiple parameters of sleep, accompanied by determination of patterns in sleep stages.which studies multiple sleep parameters, accompanied by the determination of patterns in the stages of sleep.

As a conclusion, the new definition of the symptoms of Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome is specified as an association between the loss of the ability to evoke visual images or memories that translates or manifests as a loss of dreams.

What are the causes?

In those patients who experience a loss of visual imagery during sleep, a number of lesions due to acute onset of thrombosis, hemorrhage, trauma or carbon monoxide poisoning have been identified as possible causes of Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome.

In addition, other conditions or conditions that have a more gradual development, such as the appearance of tumor masses in the cerebral tissue or an abnormal embryonic development of the corpus callosum have also been associated with this syndrome. Likewise, cases of Charcot-Williams have also been found among some patients with Alzheimer's disease and Turner syndrome.

As for the location of the brain lesions, the damage is most frequently located in the occipito-temporal areas of the brain. in the lateral occipito-temporal or mesial (mid) areas of the brain and almost always bilaterally. and almost always bilaterally. However, a more exact or precise location has not yet been found.

Treatment and prognosis

Due to the nature of this condition, there is still no certain or effective treatment for Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome. However, there have been cases in which Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome has been there have been cases in which there is a gradual recovery of the ability to remember of the ability to recall dreams.

Although the exact cause of recovery has not yet been determined, it will depend on the severity of the brain damage as well as the root cause of the disease. Depending on these factors, the patient may experience full recovery, partial recovery or no remission of symptoms at all.