Astatopsia: A Case Report of Static Visual Agnosia Following Awake Resection of a Left Frontal Low-Grade Glioma

Background: and Clinical Significance: Visual agnosia and speech production deficits are well-described sequelae of neurosurgical interventions, but their selective dissociation remains rare. This report presents an unusual combination of postoperative deficits following awake resection of a left frontal low-grade glioma; Case Presentation: We present the case of a right-handed female with left hemisphere language dominance who had a left frontal low-grade glioma. Preoperatively, she exhibited anomia and dysexecutive syndrome, including difficulty completing everyday goal-directed tasks such as sending emails and paying for parking. Following awake tumor resection, she developed two rare, dissociated deficits: (1) speech restricted to infinitive verb forms and (2) selective visual agnosia for static images, with preserved recognition of dynamic stimuli. Conclusions: This unique clinical constellation highlights the vulnerability of left frontal language and ventral visual processing networks during surgery and supports the dual-stream model of vision and language production; we propose the term “astatopsia” to describe this peculiar clinical condition which was never described in such manner in literature at the best of our knowledge.