Clinical Vignette:

A lesion of the ventral lateral nucleus along with the intralaminar nuclei and the dorsomedial nucleus on the right side was postulated to be the cause of a disinhibition syndrome that appeared in a 72-year-old woman (Bogousslavsky et al, 1988b). The [patient, who had no prior psychiatric history, developed a syndrome of increased speech, jokes, laughing, inappropriate comments, and confabulations. The authors suggest that this behavioral syndrome was produced by interrupting the link provided by the mediodorsal nucleus between the limbic system and the prefrontal lobe. Mani a following thalamic lesions is associated with damage to the right side (Cummings and Mendez, 1984).