Dyschiria, also known as dyschiric syndrome, is a neurological disorder where one-half of an individual's body or space cannot be recognized or respond to sensations.
[1] The dyschiric syndrome was defined in the early 19th century by Ernest Jones, a Welsh psychiatrist, and has encapsulated several explanations of theoretical mechanisms for each stage.
[3][4] In clinical studies, dyschiria is also referred to as the mislocalization of sensations (visual, auditory, and tactile) to the opposite half of the body which can be both unilateral and bilateral.
Therapeutic options majorly consist of virtual reality (VR), neglected field eye patching, and prismatic adaptation (PA) alongside other rehabilitation therapies.
[5] The findings of dyschiria complexly align with cases studying syndromes of spatial neglect and related disorders that have been published in medical literature in the early 19th century.
Jones studied the initial case of achiria alongside the phenomena of allochiria perceived by French psychologist Pierre Janet (1899) and Austrian neurologist Heinrich Obersteiner (1882), respectively.
Neglect is the umbrella term for classification of neurological disorders of distinct subtypes including the visual, somatosensory, motor, extrapersonal, personal, and representational subdivisions.
[9] Therefore, diverse neurological mechanisms have since then been proposed to investigate and explain higher cognitive functioning in the clinical study of neglect disorders.
Symptom severity, pathophysiology, modality and chronology of neglect disorders also enhance the understanding of the neural networks in the brain of patients.
There are three forms of dyschiria in the corresponding stages: achiria, allochiria, and synchiria, that manifest the neurological disorder in distinct capacities of sensory, motor and introspective recognition.
According to Dr. Ernest Jones, patients could feel the affected side being displaced and shifting between the two halves of the median plane of their body.
A study on a patient with a brain lesion on their left hemisphere showed detection of touch to be possible, lacking accurate identification of the point of contact.
[11][17] No treatment is established to be entirely effective on patients with dyschiria and related neglect disorders as the functioning mechanisms of the syndromes are varied.
Therapeutic options are unable to maintain stable positive effects and are difficult to transfer for daily-life usage with certainty.
Major treatments for dyschiria include virtual reality (VR), neglected field eye patching, and prismatic adaptation (PA).
[5] Virtual reality allows for the simulation of daily life circumstances to rehabilitate control of limbs, eyes, and head movement.
[18] Improvements in body coordination and sensations in daily-life activities can be practiced as patients achieve targets for movement with varying difficulties through the virtual simulation.
[20] The covered eye results in hemifield occlusion of vision which enables the individual to focus their awareness on the contralateral space using the deficient side of the body.
Neck muscle vibration technique alongside simultaneous visual exploration training resulted in sound enhancements for patients with spatial neglect.