Pathology
A cerebrovascular accident (stroke) can lead to the thalamic syndrome, which involves a one-sided burning or aching sensation often accompanied by mood swings. Bilateral ischemia of the area supplied by the paramedian artery can cause serious problems including akinetic mutism, and be accompanied by oculomotor problems. A related concept is thalamocortical dysrhythmia. The occlusion of the artery of Percheron can lead to a bilateral thalamus infarction.
Korsakoff's syndrome stems from damage to the mammillary body, the mammillothalamic fasciculus or the thalamus.
Fatal familial insomnia is a hereditary prion disease in which degeneration of the thalamus occurs, causing the patient to gradually lose his ability to sleep and progressing to a state of total insomnia, which invariably leads to death.
Read more about this topic: Thalamus
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“It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.”
—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)