Recent research in nonhuman primates (NHPs) suggests that many aspects of Balint's syndrome and optic ataxia are a result of damage to specific functional modules for reaching, saccades, grasp, attention, and state estimation. The deficits from large lesions in humans are probably composite effects from damage to combinations of these functional modules. Interactions between these modules, either within posterior parietal cortex or downstream within frontal cortex, may account for more complex behaviors such as hand-eye coordination and reach-to-grasp.

Balint syndrome is a rare neurologic disease characterized by the triad of optic ataxia, ocular apraxia and simultanagnosia due to posterior parietal lobe lesions. Patients report ophthalmologic difficulties in the absence of underlying ophthalomologic anomalies and present severe visual and spatial disabilities in locating and reaching objects, initiating voluntary eye movements and perceiving more than one object at a time.

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/Orphanet_363746, http://identifiers.org/snomedct/765212008

psychic paralysis of visual fixation, Balint-Holmes syndrome, optic ataxia-gaze apraxia-simultanagnosia syndrome

MONDO:0018211